The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority has appointed Urban Angehrn as Chief Executive Officer following the Federal Council’s approval.
Starting on 1 November 2021, Urban Angehrn is currently a member of the Executive Committee and Group Chief Investment Officer of Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) and serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zurich Life Insurance Company as well as serving as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Zurich Insurance Group Pension Plan.
Jan Blöchliger will remain as FINMA’s CEO ad interim until November 2021, bridging the gap created on 31 May 2021, when Mark Branson left the financial watchdog.
Marlene Amstad, Chair of FINMA’s Board of Directors, said: “With the appointment of Urban Angehrn FINMA is gaining an experienced leader with broad national and international financial market experience in the insurance, banking and asset management industries. In addition, he is very familiar with topics of future relevance such as digitalisation and sustainability, which will shape the financial centre.”
“On behalf of the entire Board of Directors I would like to thank Jan Blöchliger for his excellent work as CEO ad interim, as well as the entire Executive Board for their great commitment to continuing operations during this transitional period.”
Urban Angehrn has worked at Zurich for more than 14 years and previously held various roles at Winterthur, Credit Suisse First Boston and JP Morgan.
“I am looking forward to managing FINMA at the high level already achieved together with the Board of Directors and the Executive Board, and helping prepare the financial centre for topics of future relevance,” said Urban Angehrn.
Angehrn will thus lead the Swiss regulator in a very challenging time as the digital asset space takes over. FINMA has been quite open to crypto innovation, having granted regulatory approval to crypto bank SEBA back in 2019 and offered a safe environment for crypto fintech firms to grow.
