Staff at Falcon Private Bank including a star banker are heading for the exits, finews.asia has learned. The Abu Dhabi-owned wealth manager is fighting a downward spiral.
Daniel Christen (pictured below) has left Falcon Private Bank, along with his team, a source told finews.asia. The Zurich-based private bank confirmed Christen's departure. He isn't just any banker: as the point man for major clients and for Falcon's European business, Christen was a superstar of the revenue line and and oversaw a hefty share of assets under management.
Falcon's situation is becoming increasingly uncomfortable for CEO Martin Keller, who took over following the 1MDB scandal which swept through the bank last year. Keller is losing one key top executive and private banker after another, while trying to stanch Falcon's losses and roll out the bank's new strategy.
Toxic Cocktail
The departures, which add to top-level exits earlier this year, are being fueled uncertainty over the bank's future after it emerged that owner Abu Dhabi isn't ruling out offloading Falcon. A toxic cocktail of strategic disorientation, uncertain ownership, massive loss of expertise as well as clients had led Falcon into a downward spiral.
The specific ingredients of the cocktail are:
1. Key Players Out
Daniel Christen isn't the latest talent to leave the bank. Legal boss Sibil Melliger has also left, finews.asia has learned (a spokesman confirmed her exit). The heavyweight exits keep piling up: the departures of finance chief Urs Zgraggen, tech boss Mathias Studach, trading head Ivo Sauter, and strategic and regulatory point man Christian Schulthess make for a veritable brain drain.
The timing of Christen's exit raises questions marks over the viability of Falcon as a wealth manager. Manuel Graf and a team catering to Russian clients had already left for VP Bank while Peter Sigrist, Falcon's man for Nordic clients, moved to Bank Vontobel last year. In sum, Falcon has lost its three top private bankers and teams in short order.
«We're recruiting at high intensity, especially for client-facing roles and in blockchain- and crypto-based asset management,» a spokesman for the bank said. «We're also working on succession planning towards an end of June deadline.»
2. Spirit of Digital Optimism Fizzled
finews.asia was left with this impression when speaking to current and former Falcon bankers – even if a spokesman vehemently denied this subjective view. There is no sign of the digital platform that CEO Keller (pictured below) pledged last October.
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