Colm Kelleher, an Irishman, chairs the country's largest bank while Sergio Ermotti, its CEO, spent many years abroad. Still, a new study provides a more nuanced view of the global Swiss bank executive.

Globalization has accelerated since the turn of the millennium. But with that comes the discussion of the creation of a global economic elite. That is also the point when many start to disagree about whether there really is some kind of transnational business aristocracy or whether the entire thing is a myth.

Business networks and cross-shareholdings, the composition of the top levels of management, and the boards of many companies do seem to indicate that some kind of business elite has formed at the top.

A new study by the University of Fribourg drafted by Pedro Araujo and Eric Davoine took a closer look at the question of management in the Swiss financial system and how mobile the transnational economic elite is. Their analysis is not as clear-cut as one might like to believe.

Searching Linkedin

They based their study on a database of 186 executives working at the 28 largest banks in 2020, while also conducting 20 interviews with the heads of human resources and 15 interviews with bank managers.

The authors collected information about education and career profiles based on annual reports while also looking at LinkedIn profiles to analyze the geographic mobility of top Swiss bank managers between the ages of 30 and 60.

One of the things that came out of the study is that managers in the Swiss banking sectors worked an average of 15.5 years in Switzerland. They worked for about 1.5 years in Europe (excluding the UK), one year in the US, and 8 months in the UK or six months in Asia.

Only a Minority

The authors maintain that it is not easy to generalize about transnational mobility in Swiss banking. They only find a small minority of bankers spent lengthy times abroad, most of whom are with the major banks and asset managers,

Such bankers are typically not Swiss citizens and often work in a global city located in their country of origin.

Most managers spend the entirety of their time in Switzerland, with a few foreign experiences at the outset of their careers. Seldom do they go abroad after the age of 40. The levels of mobility follow the geography of the world's most cosmopolitan cities, with most managers having spent some time in the financial centers of New York and London.

Going to the US

The level of transnational experience is the highest at the major banks. Bankers working there worked on average 11.6 years in Switzerland. The analysis also underlines the importance of experience in the US, with executives having spent roughly 6.2 years there.

In comparison, the UK was far behind that, with bankers spending about 1 year there on average. In total, those working at the major banks spent about 1.8 years in Asia and almost as long in Europe.

Linked to Nationality

Much of this is linked with nationality, given that the highest proportion of bank managers who are not Swiss work at Credit Suisse or UBS. They often start their careers outside Switzerland in their home country, with 58 percent of the top managers working until they are 40 outside Switzerland.

The top management levels at the major banks have a deal of cross-border experience. Only four of nine senior executives have worked exclusively in Switzerland.

Regional and Local

Cantonal banks and regional banks run along similar lines. Both are comprised of managers who are predominantly Swiss (97 percent) and their careers are strongly anchored in Switzerland, with most of them having worked on average for 23.6 years in the country.

About 1 in five of them have worked abroad for at least two years. In contrast to the top managers at other institutions, they often have a degree from an executive program and at an internationally acknowledged business school.

European Orientation 

Executives in asset management institutions have the second-largest rates of cross-border mobility. More than three of four have spent at least two years outside of their home country. In contrast to the major banks, however, their direction of travel is mostly Europe, with an average of 3.2 years spent in Europe and 1.5 years in the UK.

Given that asset managers have strongly expanded their activities to Europe, having a presence makes it easier to recruit from abroad. As a result, about a third of the managers working for them are not Swiss.