The excitement of Collardi’s deals aside, Julius Baer’s recipe for private banking is relatively dull. Bernhard Hodler (pictured below), who replaced Collardi nearly 14 months ago, is trying to make good on that. The bank is currently two-thirds of the way through replacing its ancient information technology platform with one from Swiss software provider Temenos, for example. Home market Switzerland has yet to migrate.
Last year, the bank poached a risk overseer from UBS, Olivier Bartholet, to replace Hodler (just two months after the hire was disclosed, the deposed risk manager would find himself accidental CEO following Collardi’s shock exit).
Invisible Board
The structural difficulties facing Julius Baer are reflected in the share price, which will be a thorn in the side of major investors MFS Investment Managers, Harris Associates, Blackrock and Wellington Management. If this worsens, the bank will eventually be touted as a takeover candidate.
If Sauter was a low-key chairman who gladly left the decision-making to Collardi, his board colleagues were even less perceivable. With Raymond Baer’s exit from the board in 2012 (he remains an honorary chairman), the last representative of the founding family retreated from management of the bank.
Now, Sauter’s exit and the nomination of Credit Suisse veteran Romeo Lacher (pictured above) mark a chance for Julius Baer to figure out how it can grow, sustainably, in the next ten years without another oil spill.
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