“The UBS phase is over,” a Quintet banker told me last week.
Luxembourg-based Qatari-owned Quintet Private Bank - 2,000 staff in 50 cities - is looking forward to calmer waters after sailing through choppy waters during the last three years. That course was set out with the arrival of at least seven former executives from UBS, one of the world’s top 10 investment banks and, as Lucifer’s Bank, known for an excessive risk appetite, a take-no-prisoners attitude and numerous tax evasion investigations.
The departure of Quintet’s CEO Europe Thomas Rodermann at the end of last year could mark a turning point. He will not be replaced. Rodermann, the former head of UBS in Germany, joined in January 2020 and was the driver of the integration of Merck Finck in Germany, InsingerGillissen in the Netherlands and Puilaetco in Belgium into a single business unit.
That integration met opposition at the different national levels, also given that at the same time, Quintet’s ambitions for 2020 to build a solid Swiss private banking branch were being derailed by the pandemic and the death of CEO Juerg Zeltner, former head of wealth management at UBS who died of cancer in March 2020.
Bank am Bellevue
The bank then abandoned the plans for its Zurich-based Bank am Bellevue. This decision contributed to a 110 million euro loss for 2021 and forced the Qatari owners to inject additional cash.
In the end, the three national brand names in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium were maintained, although all under the Quintet label. Quintet now operates with two business units: one with its EU branches in five countries, and one with Brown Shipley in the UK.
Quintet’s senior management today still comprises two former UBS executives: chairman Rory Tapner and group chief operating officer Eli Leenaars. Leenaars, a Dutch national, joined Quintet in June 2021 after having spent more than six years as vice chairman of UBS Wealth Management. Before that, he served more than a decade at ING.
Tapner left UBS more than a decade ago. His resume includes more than 13 years at the Swiss bank. When he left in 2009 he was chairman and CEO of UBS’ Asia Pacific operations, before joining British private bank Coutts, where he made it to CEO.
Indelible mark
While not entirely correct, hearing one say “the UBS phase is over” does reflect a clear desire at Quintet to mark a turning point. The private bank may want to distance itself from its recent past, closing off a period where the leadership of former UBS executives left an indelible mark, both in terms of its company culture and its financial performance.
If this change of course is confirmed in the year ahead, credits will go to former HSBC executive Chris Allen who was appointed Quintet group CEO last summer. No more risky Swiss adventures. No more hard push for excessive alignment across Europe. But instead, also considering the turmoil in the global economy and the war on Europe’s doorstep, guiding the bank with a firm focus on its core business: managing its clients’ wealth.
In Flux is a regular column on Investment Officer Luxembourg shedding light on the Luxembourg financial ecosystem. Financial journalist Raymond Frenken is Editorial Manager of Investment Officer Luxembourg. For tips, comments or suggestions, email him at raymond.frenken@investmentofficer.lu.