Raiffeisen will have to look for a new boss. Heinz Huber, CEO of the St. Gallen bank, will leave his position at the end of the year, before taking over the presidency of the Graubünden Cantonal Bank (GKB) from July 2025.
Former boss of the Thurgau Cantonal Bank, Heinz Huber has been CEO of Raiffeisen since January 2019 and has contributed to the development of the establishment, the latter wrote in a press release on Wednesday.
While the cooperative banking group suffered a drop in its net profit of 41% over the year to 540.8 million francs for the 2018 financial year, Raiffeisen generated a net profit of 1.39 billion last year, for revenues of 4.1 billion.
>> Read about it: A good year in 2023 for Raiffeisen, which increases its net profit by almost 18%
Incidentally, the St. Gallen bank recalls the entry into office of Heinz Huber at a “very delicate” period, the latter then succeeding Patrik Gisel, who had left his position in the context of the Vincenz affair (read box for more details)named after his predecessor Pierin Vincenz.
>> Reread: Raiffeisen announces the immediate resignation of its CEO Patrik Gisel
Premature departure of Peter Fanconi from GKB
Appointed and elected by the government of the canton of Graubünden, Heinz Huber will succeed Peter Fanconi, who announced that he would relinquish his position as chairman of the board of the Graubünden Cantonal Bank (GKB) after the 2025 general meeting, even though he was initially re-elected for a third term from 2022 to 2026. In order to ensure a smooth transition, he will however continue to serve in his role until the end of June 2025.
Peter Fanconi was criticized for his relations with the Austrian investor René Benko, whose real estate group Signa, then in the process of collapsing, had obtained a loan of more than 60 million francs from the GKB. Mandated by the establishment, the audit firm Ernst & Young, which also certifies the bank’s accounts, concluded that the granting of this loan was in order, considering in particular that the role of the president was limited to the bringing the parties into contact.
However, the Ernst & Young report only partially convinced the Graubünden State Council. The latter had perceived a need to act at the level of the establishment’s governing bodies, inviting his GKB managers to discuss in particular their obligations in terms of transparency.
Christian Poerschke takes over as interim
To succeed Peter Franconi, the government’s choice fell on Heinz Huber because of his “long and solid experience in the financial sector”, indicates the GKB in a press release.
Christian Poerschke, current head of the Finance & Services department and vice-president of the management of Raiffeisen, will take over as interim head of the number two Swiss bank, which brings together some 220 banks and employs more than 11,000 employees.
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