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The head of Switzerland’s financial regulator has resigned citing the toll on his health of “permanent stress levels”, months after orchestrating the rescue of Credit Suisse by UBS.
Urban Angehrn, who has been chief executive of Finma for less than two years, played a pivotal role in negotiations over the most significant bank merger since the financial crisis.
Finma announced on Wednesday that he would step down at the end of September.
Angehrn said in a statement that the “high and permanent stress level” of the job “had health consequences” for him.
“I have considered my decision carefully and have now decided to step down,” the 58-year-old added.
Finma is being sued by Credit Suisse investors who lost billions of dollars after the regulator signed off a move to wipe out $17bn of bonds as part of the takeover by UBS.
The measure was particularly controversial because shareholders in Credit Suisse retained some value for their equity, an upending of the traditional investor hierarchy even though it was permitted under Swiss law.
Questions were also asked about how Credit Suisse was allowed to get into such a perilous state that it was forced into a rescue by its longtime rival, prompting Angehrn to publish a defence of the regulator in Swiss newspaper NZZ in July.
A Swiss government-commissioned report into the collapse of Credit Suisse that was published last week found that Finma was too weak to adequately handle banking crises.
The report, written by a committee of eight academics, bankers and former regulators, recommended giving Finma greater powers after concluding that it lacked teeth in comparison with international peers and struggled to enforce its will on the country’s banking sector.
The watchdog has just 550 staff, compared with the thousands employed by other regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
Angehrn will be replaced as chief executive by his deputy, Birgit Rutishauser, on a temporary basis from October 1.
Finma said Angehrn was instrumental in managing the Credit Suisse crisis, which it described as “the biggest challenge” in its history.
“During his term of office, Urban Angehrn had to cope with and be responsible for an extraordinary wealth of tasks in a wide variety of areas in addition to the day-to-day business,” said Marlene Amstad, the regulator’s chair.
Separately on Wednesday, Switzerland’s Federal Council — the country’s seven-member executive body — reappointed the existing Finma board for a further three years, adding former Deutsche Bank executive Rene Keller.
Angehrn, a 14-year veteran of Zurich Insurance who spent some of his early career at Credit Suisse, was widely liked among international peers even as Swiss policymakers faced backlash over their decisions around the bank and their lack of consultation with other regulators, particularly the European Central Bank.
UBS last week reported a record $29bn profit in the second quarter, almost entirely driven by an accounting gain on the Credit Suisse takeover. UBS’s shares have risen more than 30 per cent since the rescue was agreed.
