Ermotti is favorite to land UBS post

Switzerland’s biggest bank is likely to name newcomer Sergio Ermotti as permanent boss within the next days or weeks, sources tell The NY Post.

Ermotti, a 51-year-old Swiss native who’s only been at UBS since April, was named interim chief executive after his predecessor Oswald Gruebel’s stunning resignation on Saturday. Ermotti and investment banking boss Carsten Kengeter are both viewed as possible heirs.

Ermotti is tasked with steering the Swiss giant, which has a big presence in New York, in the aftermath of a train wreck caused by an unauthorized trading loss that has left a $2.3 billion hole in its balance sheet.

One plan is making the Swiss bank a smaller operation focused more on investment banking as an afterthought to its business that manages trillions for the world’s uber-rich.
The decision to tap Ermotti occurred as early as Friday after Gruebel, 67, handed in his resignation to the bank’s board of directors, sources said. He had earlier said he had no such plans.

However, some sources said, Gruebel, hired in 2009 to restore UBS’s battered reputation, felt obliged to give the board a chance to make a choice…


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