The Dutch judiciary has opened an investigation into Ralph Hamers for alleged acts committed while he was still at ING.

UBS would have done well without this advertisement. Ralph Hamers will have barely had time to make his mark as CEO of the bank, a position officially assumed on November 1, 2020, that a first annoyance arises. He has just been caught up in a court case dating from 2018 that seemed to be settled.

A Dutch court has reopened an investigation into his role in a money laundering scandal at ING, his former employer, for whom he worked for more than 30 years.

Originally, ING, which had been accused of not having sufficient control over its customers, thus potentially allowing money laundering operations, had reached an agreement with the Dutch courts. The bank had paid 775 million euros in 2018 to settle the case amicably. However, a Dutch court in The Hague, without calling into question the agreement between the judiciary and ING, decided to continue the investigation into Ralph Hamers.

'UBS takes note of the decision of the Netherlands court to order the public prosecutor to open an investigation into Ralph Hamers in his capacity as former Managing Director of ING, relating to ING's anti-money laundering compliance', said the Swiss bank, while assuring that it has "full confidence" in the ability of its chief executive to lead the Swiss group. The bank also assured that these facts were known by the board of directors and had been taken into consideration when Ralph Hamers joined the group. Finma, the Swiss regulator, also said it had found nothing to say during the examination of the candidacy of the CHIEF executive of UBS. 

These facts may have been known, but it is not certain that the bank has properly assessed the risk of reopening the file.

In March 2021, UBS will already have to manage the appeal trial of its conviction by the French justice in 2019 to a fine of 3.7 billion euros for illegal bank canvassing and laundering tax fraud. The investigation of its new managing director for acts of the same nature, even if they were committed in another structure, may not help to restore the image of the bank. Yesterday, the bank's share price barely moved, posting an increase of 0.16% to 12.89 Swiss francs (12 euros).