Urban Angehrn takes up his new post as CEO of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA today. He replaces CEO ad interim Jan Blöchliger, who will once again be in charge of banking supervision. Urban Angehrn will recuse himself from items of business that concern his former employer.
Urban Angehrn took office as FINMA CEO today. He takes over this role from Jan Blöchliger, who has held it on an interim basis since Mark Branson’s departure on 1 May 2021. Jan Blöchliger returns to his role as Head of the Banks division and member of the Executive Board. Michael Waldburger, who has led the Banks division on an interim basis for the past seven months and was a member of the Executive Board, will lead the supervision of UBS as before.
Marlene Amstad, Chair of FINMA’s Board of Directors, says: “The Swiss financial centre faces major opportunities and challenges, particularly in relation to digitalisation and sustainability. Besides his long and broad experience in the traditional focus areas of supervision, not least risk management, Urban Angehrn also has considerable experience in both of these areas. I am very much looking forward to driving progress in these areas of future relevance together with him and the whole of the FINMA leadership team.” She also stresses: “I would like to thank Jan Blöchliger most sincerely for his excellent work as CEO ad interim. Thanks are also due to the other interim managers and the entire Executive Board for making progress with key supervisory matters and proceedings during this transitional period.”
New CEO Urban Angehrn says on the occasion of his taking office: “I am very happy to be joining a well-run, established authority, which has gained both national and international recognition. Since it was established almost thirteen years ago, FINMA has achieved a lot and laid the foundations for safeguarding financial stability, client protection and integrity in the financial centre. Building on this, I now intend – together with the leadership team and the employees – to develop FINMA further, in particular by looking closely at the topic of change in the sector and actively accompanying this with an open mind as a supervisory authority.”
Implementing the recusal rules
The recusal rules as set out in FINMA’s Code of Conduct apply to Urban Angehrn in the same way as they do to all FINMA employees. Urban Angehrn will therefore recuse himself from all items of business that concern his former employer (Zurich Insurance Group) until the end of October 2022. As usual, FINMA will also examine whether any other grounds for recusal exist. The Executive Board decides on the recusal of members of the Executive Board in the absence of the member concerned.
