Head of the Swiss Financial Market Authority resigns

The director of because of the crisis around the CreditSuisse The Swiss financial market supervisory authority (Finma), which has come under criticism, surprisingly resigns at the end of September. Urgan Angehrn explained on Wednesday that the high and lasting burden on the office had health consequences. “I have carefully considered my decision and have now decided to resign,” said the former manager of the insurer Zurich. “It is very difficult for me to hand over this task, but this is a step of common sense.”

A Finma spokesman did not want to provide any further information on the reasons for the resignation and a possible connection to the Credit Suisse case. Angehrn’s deputy Birgit Rutishauser was appointed interim director on October 1, 2023. Angehrn will be available to her for an orderly handover of all transactions and for follow-up work after the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS. The Board of Directors has initiated the process of filling the position.

Angehrn took over the office in 2021 after his predecessor Mark Branson moved to the head of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). The FINMA Board President, Marlene Amstad, and the other previous members of the Supervisory Board were re-elected by the Swiss government on Wednesday for the new term of office from 2024 to 2027. The former head of IT at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, Rene Keller, is a newcomer. Previously, he held management positions at Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Boerse.

After the collapse and the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by its larger rival UBS in March, Finma, but also the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss government, were criticized for their late intervention. After the first bank run in October 2022, it was already becoming apparent that Credit Suisse could get into trouble, according to the critics. Angehrn rejected the allegations in July. Finma is not responsible for the CS crisis, Credit Suisse failed on its own. The primary statutory task of the authority is to protect creditors and keep the Swiss financial market functioning. “In the case of Credit Suisse, we have achieved these key objectives – thanks to close cooperation with the National Bank and the Department of Finance.”

The sinking of the 167-year-old institute had in the Switzerland and also attracted a great deal of attention on the international financial markets. It is not the first time that the authorities of the country known for its stability and reliability have had to intervene; In 2008, she rushed to the aid of UBS, which was struggling during the financial crisis. However, tightening the regulatory requirements was apparently not enough to protect Credit Suisse. The crisis has political consequences.

A very rarely used special parliamentary commission began work in July. It is intended to clarify what went wrong in the years before the collapse of the second largest Swiss bank and how the government, together with other authorities, orchestrated an emergency takeover.