Credit Suisse’s top private banker, Iqbal Khan, is jumping ship. The Swiss bank named an internal candidate to succeed him.

Iqbal Khan, the Zurich-based bank’s head of international private banking for the last four years, is leaving immediately, Credit Suisse said in a statement late on Monday. Khan indicated his swift and surprise exit is due to his choice to work for a competitor.

«I decided to pursue the next career move outside of Credit Suisse Group,» the Swiss banker said in a statement. «I am grateful to Credit Suisse for the professional development opportunities I was given.»

The move will send shockwaves through Credit Suisse, where the 43-year-old is viewed as the most promising potential successor to CEO Tidjane Thiam. Khan has also emerged as one of the hottest talents in Swiss wealth management as well as a viable candidate to run either Julius Baer or even UBS, which faces a leadership crisis of its own.

Finance Boss Advances

Credit Suisse said it will replace Khan with Philipp Wehle, currently the wealth unit's finance chief. The appointment of Wehle, a German native, is effective on Monday.

«Philipp is an outstanding leader and manager, with an impeccable track record of generating strong revenue growth while driving cost and capital discipline,» Thiam said in the statement, which is conspicuously absent of any thanks or acknowledgement for Khan from either the CEO or Chairman Urs Rohner.

Targets Hit

The future of Khan, a former consultant who joined the bank six years ago, has been the subject of fevered speculation. Earlier this year, new Julius Baer Chairman Romeo Lacher was reportedly courting him for the top job at that bank.

This comes as Khan's division hit targets during CEO Thiam's grueling three-year revamp of Credit Suisse, as finews.com reported in February. Ambitious and driven, Khan was keen for the bank to map out a career plan for him earlier this year. He was previously finance chief of the private bank before Thiam promoted him to run the unit in a 2015 overhaul.

Finance Expert

Wehle, who isn't widely known outside of Credit Suisse, has been in the wealth finance role since the same overhaul. The former consultant spent nearly two years in Singapore, also in finance for the wealth unit.

The finance expert played a key role in building Credit Suisse's international trading solutions arm, Thiam said. The unit, which seeks for Credit Suisse's disparate unit to work on client deals together, was recently singled out as a success story by the CEO.