UBS has appointed Iqbal Khan as the sole head of its flagship wealth administration division in a management reshuffle that strengthens his probabilities of getting about as chief govt of the Swiss bank in the foreseeable future.

Tom Naratil, who was formerly co-head of the division along with Khan and led the bank’s Americas device, will depart UBS following 39 many years. Naratil was a single of the architects of the lender’s determination to make investments closely in prosperity management when putting less emphasis on financial investment banking.

In addition, Naureen Hassan will be a part of as president of UBS Americas from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she was very first vice-president and main operating officer. Jason Chandler will carry on as head of US wealth administration but will report to Khan.

UBS main government Ralph Hamers congratulated Khan on “his expanded role” and explained he was “delighted” to welcome Hassan to the financial institution. Hamers also thanked Naratil for his “significant contributions” around the past four many years.

The management changes cement Khan’s standing as a single of the most prosperous Swiss bankers of his generation. The 46-year-outdated has risen to the major of the industry in excess of the previous decade, whilst at just one point his immediate ascent appeared to be underneath menace subsequent a bruising row with his erstwhile boss, former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam.

Khan joined UBS in 2019, acquiring remaining arch rival Credit score Suisse less than a cloud of acrimony following it emerged that the bank experienced authorised a surveillance programme of him and his family members pursuing the feud with Thiam.

The scurrilous information of the clash amongst two of the most senior figures in Swiss banking — which includes a row over their neighbouring luxury attributes on the “gold coast” of Lake Zurich — transfixed the country’s usually staid monetary community.

Ultimately, quite a few months following Khan’s resignation from Credit history Suisse, the scandal toppled Thiam.

In his new role, Khan is positioned as a primary contender to a person day get over from Hamers, who became main government of UBS just below two a long time in the past.

In an interior memo seen by the Monetary Times, Khan and Naratil instructed staff that “leadership transitions can naturally prompt queries about the future” but reported the bank’s senior management remained “completely committed” to the world wealth management tactic.

“Our business enterprise has hardly ever been in superior shape, and with our bold growth technique very well underneath way, the time is proper to transition to our following chapter,” Naratil and Khan wrote in the memo.

Khan was credited with driving the speedy enlargement of Credit history Suisse’s wealth administration division, a feat he has recurring at UBS, the largest loan provider to the world’s “super-rich”. Khan will now direct a division that oversees more than $3tn in belongings.

Though UBS has thrived in new several years, Credit Suisse has been roiled by successive authorized disputes and management missteps, together with the departure of its chair António Horta-Osório adhering to a number of breaches of Switzerland’s Covid-19 quarantine principles.