UBS under pressure as probe into CEO still pending

Swiss bank UBS remains under pressure as a Dutch investigation into its chief executive officer, Ralph Hamers, and the role that he may have played in a money laundering scandal at his previous employer was still pending.

The new CEO was hit with the probe barely a month after taking over at the helm of the investment bank in November. The investigation, which will look into his time at ING Groep, is expected to last at least a year once the process formally gets under way in February.

UBS’s directors are backing the CEO and argue that the probe isn’t an immediate threat, reported Bloomberg on Wednesday.

Chairman Axel Weber has said he is confident that Hamers will make a good CEO: “I am very confident that he has the ability to do a good job as the CEO of UBS,” Weber told Bloomberg on 12 January.

“We are monitoring the situation and we’ll update it as events happen,” Weber reportedly added.

ING Groep, which was imposed a €4.5bn record fine for helping French clients dodge taxes, has issued an appeal.