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Since the 2007-2009 crisis, U.S. regulators clearly indicated
they wanted U.S. banks "to be the leading force going forward in
the financial services industry, so they allowed them to grow,"
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said in the podcast hosted by Nicolai
Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management.
"Europe did the contrary. Europe did everything they could have
done to not allow banks to be bigger or successful," Ermotti
said in the interview published on Wednesday.
The fragmentation of Europe from a regulatory and political
standpoint "without a capital market union, without a banking
union, has prevented the creation of strong and alternative
players," the 63-year-old Ermotti argued.
The financial crisis led to a slew of bailouts and mergers in
European banking but in the aftermath, many of the best-known
lenders have struggled to match the performance of U.S. peers.
'PAROCHIAL THINKING IN EUROPE'
"There is a political desire to not allow banks to become too
big, still a lot of parochial thinking in Europe about big
banks," Ermotti said. "Each wants to have their own national
champions, forgetting that winning the national championships
doesn't take you very far (globally)."
Ermotti is now overseeing the 2023 UBS takeover of its stricken
Swiss rival Credit Suisse, which has renewed debate about how to
police banks deemed "too big to fail."
Now in his second term at the helm of UBS, Ermotti was asked
about the task of appointing his successor.
"One has to be realistic nowadays, to have more than two or
three credible candidates is not easy," he said, noting UBS's
board wanted him to stay on at a "very minimum" until the end of
2026 or early 2027.
Asked what advice he had for younger listeners, Ermotti urged
them to be passionate, flexible and mobile about work.
"I never really did anything because I wanted to be a CEO...you
must be quite sick if you think early on in your career - I want
to be a CEO," he said.
"Maybe it's a dream, but very few people make it, so you need to
work and enjoy what you do, and be successful, and over time
maybe a career comes."
(Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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