UBS AG Chairman-designate Peter Kurer said he'll replace the bank's Chairman's Office with separate strategy and risk committees that include seats for non-executive board members.
Kurer has the board's support and has spoken with financial regulators about the possible change in the Zurich-based company's decision-making structure, UBS spokesman Christoph Meier said in telephone interview with Bloomberg News, confirming Kurer's comments published by the Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper last Saturday. UBS is Switzerland's largest bank by assets.
The UBS Chairman's Office, currently composed of retiring Chairman Marcel Ospel and executive Vice-Chairman Stephan Haeringer, met 15 times last year to discuss the bank's risk profile, decide overall strategy, set salaries and bonuses, and screen nominations for executive positions, the company's Website says.
Independent board members will sit with internal UBS board members in the two new committees, Kurer said.
Kurer, 58, said he'll be on the strategy committee, without naming other committee members or saying which of the remaining Chairman's Office functions will be assumed by other bodies.
Investors will vote on Kurer's nomination as chairman at UBS's shareholder meeting on April 23. Former UBS President Luqman Arnold, whose Olivant Advisers Ltd holds 0.7 percent of UBS stock, has called for a banking expert to be chairman, instead of Kurer, a lawyer.
Institutional support
Olivant has the support of about a dozen institutional shareholders in its campaign for changes to the Swiss bank's corporate governance, the Financial Times reported.
Olivant wrote an open letter to the bank eight days ago criticizing the nomination of Kurer and asking for strategic changes. Olivant declined to identify the investors who are supporting the campaign, the newspaper said.
Separately Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, citing its own research, reported last Saturday that rival Credit Suisse Group may write down about 4 billion Swiss francs (US$4 billion) in the first quarter and post a loss of between 1 billion and 2 billion francs.
The departures of David Blumer, the former chief executive of asset management, and global securities chief Michael Ryan "are a signal that Credit Suisse must undertake price corrections and that a further writedown of billions is imminent," the Zurich-based newspaper said.
Credit Suisse said on March 20 it will write down a combined US$2.65 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008, making a profit this quarter "unlikely."
Blumer quit Credit Suisse on April 2 to join Swiss Reinsurance Co as head of financial services. At the bank he oversaw a 247-million-franc loss in the fourth quarter.