The CEO of Falcon Private Bank, in the process of being dissolved, is exiting. The exit is the latest chapter in a failed four-year recovery and reinvention effort by the wealth manager.
Martin Keller is leaving Falcon Private in mutual agreement with the Zurich-based bank's board, it said in an emailed statement on Monday. Falcon's owner, Abu Dhabi, pulled the plug on the Swiss wealth manager four months ago, after lead regulator Finma threatened to yank its license.
Falcon said its wind-down «is proceeding according to plan,» without elaborating. The bank four weeks ago offloaded a Luxembourg-based fund management arm to Alpina Capital, a rival Swiss wealth manager. A Dubai-based unit that manages roughly $1 billion in funds among client assets is also being eyed by buyers, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Fizzled Reinvention
Matteo Maccio, Falcon's finance chief of two years who had largely managed the mergers-and-acquisitions process as well as the wind-down disclosed in April, will take over from Keller as CEO. Falcon is currently in talks with two buyers for the remainder of its client assets, a second person familiar with the matter said.
Keller is an asset management industry veteran who previously worked for Credit Suisse. He had joined Falcon in 2017 to try and mount a recovery by positioning the bank as a crypto asset manager.
