.avif)
The Fireside Chat with Sergio P. Ermotti, Group CEO of UBS, was not (directly) designed as a spectacle. Yet with such a guest, the demand spoke volumes: more than 300 participants on site, an additional conference room opened for live transmission, and a waiting list that far exceeded capacity.
What unfolded was not a celebration of past performance, nor a polished narrative about success. It was a disciplined, often uncomfortable conversation about scale, responsibility, resilience and the limits of regulation—set against the backdrop of the most complex banking integration Switzerland has ever seen.
Opening
The evening was framed by Sabine Keller-Busse, President UBS Switzerland and Vice President of the ZHVG, who grounded the event both institutionally and geographically—reminding the audience that the Grünenhof is not just a prestigious address, but historically tied to the infrastructure and operational backbone of Swiss banking.
Urs D. Baumann, CEO of Zürcher Kantonalbank and President of the ZHVG, then set the tone more explicitly: what is required now is clarity, leadership and responsibility.
Bringing together two systemically important banks—UBS and the former Credit Suisse ("CS")—was not a merger in the classical sense. It was a once-in-history acquisition under extreme time pressure, with systemic risk attached. As Baumann put it plainly: had that weekend in March 2023 failed, the global system would likely have faced a 2008-style crisis, version 2.0 as I would add.
This context mattered. It framed everything that followed.
Measured Confidence, Not Celebration
Christine Maier, moderator and full-blood journalist, opened the conversation with a deceptively simple question: How do you feel about the numbers?
UBS reported USD 7.8 billion in profit last year—figures that would normally dominate headlines. Ermotti’s response was notably restrained.
Performance, he argued, must be measured over time, particularly through the lens of the share price. UBS is satisfied—but far from finished. In fact, a striking data point followed: today’s UBS earns less than UBS alone did in 2022, before the acquisition.
Short-term stock performance, he emphasized, remains overshadowed by uncertainty—especially around the future regulatory framework in Switzerland.
This was a recurring theme: success without complacency.
Integration Reality: The Last Mile Is the Hardest
Ermotti was unusually transparent about the state of the Credit Suisse integration.
What looks unified from the outside remains, operationally, two highly complex banks behind the scenes.
Crucially, Ermotti made a clear distinction: this was not a merger of two healthy equals—it was an acquisition, including the responsibility to preserve and integrate the positive elements of CS culture.
One metric he mentionoed that stood out: employee recommendation scores. In September 2022, CS stood at 55%, UBS at 81%. By the end of 2025, both hovered around 83%.
For Ermotti, this represented one of the integration’s meaningful successes.
Sustainable Growth and Resilience—Not Abandoned After All
Two words resonated more strongly than many might have expected in the current global climate: sustainable growth and resilience.
Ermotti was explicit: UBS aims to grow qualitatively. Hearing the CEO of a global systemically important bank articulate sustainable growth—after a year in which sustainable finance faced significant political and market backlash—was notable.
Regulation, however, emerged as the most contentious topic of the evening.
Ermotti rejected the notion that Credit Suisse failed due to insufficient regulation. Instead, he argued that unclear responsibilities and distorted incentives were at the heart of the problem.
“Capital and liquidity are the raw materials of our industry.”
Overregulation, he warned, risks mispricing business—leading to overly expensive credit and, ultimately, unsustainable models. Regulation has costs, and those costs are borne by clients and taxpayers alike. UBS and Credit Suisse, he reminded the audience, have paid CHF 25 billion in taxes in recent years.
Sustainability, in this framing, is inseparable from profitability and resilience.
Geopolitics, Europe and the Cost of Standing Still
The conversation then widened to geopolitics and Switzerland’s position in a shifting global order.
Ermotti was characteristically sober. The current volatility, he argued, is not new—it is the continuation of trends that will define the coming years. The real risk lies not in uncertainty itself, but in losing agility.
Europe, he suggested, has lost momentum by comparing itself too narrowly with its immediate neighbours rather than globally. Switzerland, too, must think beyond comfortable benchmarks.
Trade diversification, faster political decision-making and a willingness to learn from competitors—from Singapore to Israel—were recurring motifs.
His warning was succinct:
“Those who stand still, die.”
What a powerful reminder.
The Hard Questions: Switzerland, Scale and the Future
Audience questions cut straight to the core.
When asked about succession, Ermotti returned to first principles: a sustainable business model, strength at home before global ambition, and leadership that grows into the role over time. His own tenure, he confirmed, extends at least into early 2027.
What This Evening Ultimately Revealed
This was not a night of easy reassurance. The silence during the CEO talk in the room(s) assured that.
It was a reminder that leadership at scale is less about vision statements and more about execution under constraint—regulatory, geopolitical, operational and societal.
Three signals stood out:
For those watching closely, the evening offered something rare: a glimpse into how systemic responsibility is actually carried—day by day, decision by decision.
And that, perhaps, was the most valuable takeaway of all.
Recommended reading for those wishing to explore the Credit Suisse case from different perspectives, which I can recomend all:
.avif)
.avif)
