SWITZERLAND - Mercer Investment Consulting has appointed Ecofin’s Sven Ebeling as head of investment consulting in Switzerland.

The move follows Mercer’s acquisition of the Swiss benefit consulting business of accounting firm KPMG for an undisclosed sum in December. The agreement included KPMG’s operations in Zurich and Geneva and saw Mercer gain 24 staff.

Ebeling left Ecofin Investment Consulting, where he was relationship manager for large institutional clients, in December. He takes over from Christophe Auckenthaler, who left KPMG in August.

Ebeling, who worked for Ecofin for 10 years, was also an executive board member and handled pension funds, insurance companies and central banks, started at Mercer on February 1.

He said that in his new capacity he was doing “by a large extent the same job” but added that being “embedded in a very international organisation” was giving him the chance to work side by side with “actuarial side of the business”.

Ebeling said he appreciated Mercer’s “truly integrated approach”.

“It really makes the value for clients if a company has an integrated consulting service. Having a understanding of the situation adds quite a lot of value,” he said in an interview.

Divyesh Hindocha, head of Mercer Investment Consulting’s operations in continental Europe, said: “Sven Ebeling’s appointment and the additional resources from KPMG will be a springboard for growth in what is a very exciting market for investment consulting.”

Last November Mercer agreed to buy parts of Scandinavia-based Benefit Network and Benefit Network Consulting. In September it took on up to 38 pension staff in a deal with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Germany. In April it bought the German actuarial services division of KPMG.

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