Credit Suisse Pensionskasse, the CHF17.5bn (€18.7bn) pension fund for former employees of the bank now owned by UBS, has appointed Daniel Hunziker as chief executive officer, marking the latest change in its top management.
Hunziker, previously head of institutional clients and global asset servicing at UBS, succeeds Jürg Roth, who has held the CEO role for only a year.
“I am delighted to be taking over the leadership of the Credit Suisse Group (Switzerland) Pension Fund. Exciting times lie ahead,” Hunziker said in a LinkedIn post.
Andreas Toscan will replace Hunziker as head of institutional clients and global asset servicing, the UBS division serving institutional clients such as pension funds and insurers in Switzerland, and quasi-institutional wealth management clients globally.
Toscan, who was previously head of global institutional clients at UBS Asset Management, takes over the role immediately.
CIO role
Credit Suisse Pensionskasse has now seen three changes at the top since UBS’s emergency takeover of Credit Suisse in 2023.
Roth took over last year from Martin Wagner, who stepped down after more than a decade as CEO for personal reasons, later becoming senior adviser to the fund. Roth has also decided to leave the role for personal reasons, IPE understands.
The fund has also undergone further, less visible leadership changes. Andreas Dänzer, who left earlier in the year to join specialist currency and alternative asset manager Record, handed over the CIO position to Bruno Wicki and Jann Lyss, who now co-lead asset allocation.
Wicki, who was already head of portfolio management for traditional and alternative investments, retains that position alongside his new co-CIO role. Lyss has served as head of real estate at the pension fund for nearly a decade.
Aligning pension plans
The reshaping of the management team comes as Credit Suisse Pensionskasse works to align its pension plans with those of UBS by the end of 2026, when the wider group integration is expected to be largely complete.
Credit Suisse will close its 1e pension plans – which allow high-earning members to choose among investment strategies – to new entrants, as such schemes are not offered by UBS. The difference has been a stumbling block to full integration of the two pension funds.
Progress on integrating the pension funds has so far been limited. A merger between the two schemes, which together manage more than CHF46bn in assets, has not been decided, a UBS spokesperson told IPE.
The merger of the pension funds may ultimately not take place.
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