Thomas Gottstein has achieved nothing in two years as head of CS. Now he should be replaced wrote Bloomberg last week.
The Sunday newspaper put investment banker Christian Meissner in position. He had already been traded as CEO, namely at UBS.
On the other hand, nobody speaks of Iqbal Khan. On the contrary, the Sunday newspaper sees the danger of getting caught up in the Greensill scandal for the ex-CS top man.
The story could turn out differently. With Khan as the new head of CS. The calling would be an earthquake.
So unthinkable?
In the CS, Khan and Gottstein fought a cockfight to succeed Tidjane Thiam. After a private feud with Thiam, Khan jumped to competitor UBS, Gottstein stayed good.
For this he was richly rewarded. When Thiam fell, Gottstein inherited.
The job turned out to be oversized for the Zurich native. Credit Suisse rushes from loss to loss, sinks into internal restructuring chaos, loses good people, is ruled by top shots who are at war with each other.
Now she could be taken over. The Escher Bank: It’s over.
So she needs a savior. Just like UBS 13 years ago, when CS pensioner Oswald Grübel saved the big bank from going under.
Khan’s appointment as Gottstein’s successor would be controversial. Khan surprisingly became head of private banking at CS in 2015. Under his leadership, it grew large and profitable at record speed.
As soon as Khan was aboard, the area crashed apart. First the Greensill funds disintegrated, then the Russian loans, finally the profits.
The flagship division became the crisis division.
Was Khan’s offensive built on sand? His supporters see the mistake in the successors. “Private banking ran like clockwork under Khan,” is their tenor.
Under Khan as co-head from autumn 2019, UBS Wealth Management began to grow strongly. “Elevate” was the name of Khan’s baby, with the project the largest asset manager in the world should finally take off.
A good two years later, the first symptoms of exhaustion appear. But Khan is firmly in the saddle. If CEO Ralph Hamers were to fall over investigations in his native Holland, he would be Papabile number 1.
Waiting and hoping is not Khan’s thing. If CS President Axel Lehmann, who sat with Khan on the UBS Group Executive Board until 2021, offered the private banker the CEO job at Paradeplatz Bank, then Khan would probably be willing to do so.