Who Will Win Boris Collardi's Job?

Arthur Vayloyan

His departure at Credit Suisse five years ago was widely mourned: Vayloyan still commands enormous respect among the Swiss bank's rank and file as a decent and personable Swiss banker. Like Berchtold, his return to finance at Falcon Private Bank was short-lived. Vayloyan, who has a PhD in philosophy, recently took a job as Chief Executive at the rapidly-expanding Bitcoin Suisse and is clearly passionate about finance's future: the banker visited prestigious U.S. tech university MIT last year for a graduate course in fintech.

He has the educational chops and the big banking experience, but whether Vayloyan, who effectively took a five-year break after Credit Suisse, really wants a job the size of Collardi's is questionable.  

Juerg Zeltner

The UBS private bank head is finews.asia's boldest guess – why would the man running the largest wealth manager in the world want a much smaller job? Hear us out: a move to Julius Baer could represent Zeltner's last chance to run a Swiss bank, after the air has become somewhat thin for him at UBS. 

The private banker is no longer in pole position to inherit the CEO spot at UBS from Sergio Ermotti, who is showing little sign of moving on after six years. Under Zeltner, UBS' private bank has not delivered the success that was hoped for under the 2012 pivot to wealth management. Zeltner, who has been with UBS since beginning with his apprenticeship 30 years ago, also doesn't command the personal support that the top UBS job would require. Walking across the street to Julius Baer could be Zeltner's salvation.

Olivier Jaquet

The Swiss banker had two false starts: Jacquet took over as CEO at Clariden Leu shortly before Credit Suisse dissolved the boutique into its regular private banking activities. He moved on to Centrum Bank, where he was meant to restructure into a more competitive firm. Shortly after, Liechtenstein-based VP Bank bought the firm and the 48-year-old Jaquet was out of a job again. 

Because he is short on leadership experience, Jaquet would be a surprising candidate to run Julius Baer more permanently, though thanks to his Credit Suisse network he clearly would have a cultural affinity to the smaller bank.

Credit Suisse M&A?

Next year will be a year of pressure on Sauter, the Julius Baer chairman, to present a big name to succeed Collardi – as well as to present a viable strategy to keep growing without Collardi's stellar connections.

Should he fail to do this, Julius Baer shares will languish, and the bank will become a takeover candidate, as finews.asia has reported previously. Could the bank be a target for Credit Suisse? Combining the two would vault Credit Suisse to within striking distance of UBS, and let the bank unleash its full «one-bank» potential in the ultra-hot Asia market.