As you may have heard, over the weekend, UBS CEO Oswald Gruebel informed the board that as much fun as this job’s been, he’d like to quit while still ahead. Sergio Ermotti, head of European business, has been named interim CEO and while a candidate for the gig before the whole Kweku Adoboli incident, the bank isn’t set on him running the place for the long term (“He takes clients out, he’s got a nice tan, but he doesn’t have the charisma to run a place like UBS and to cope with the risk,” one analyst said in July). So, a search is underway, both internally and externally, neither scenario thrilling anyone (an outsider CEO would be tough since next year they’ll be getting an outsider CEO in Axel Weber, while an insider would be someone who was there when shit went down), and a total of one name being proposed in the last 3 days. Continue reading »