Swiss regulator bans ex-Coop Bank CEO for 3 years

Basler Kantonalbank

29/10/2014 08:45

ZURICH, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Switzerland's financial regulator 
FINMA said on Wednesday it had banned the former head of Coop 
Bank  BC.S  from management jobs in the finance sector for three 
years, after the retail bank was found to have manipulated its 
own shares. 
    FINMA has imposed 16 such bans on bankers in Switzerland 
since 2009 when it first introduced them. It almost never makes 
them public. 
    FINMA said Coop Bank, which has a market value of 714 
million Swiss francs ($754.4 million), had manipulated the 
market price of its own shares between 2009 and 2013 and that 
former chief executive Andreas Waespi was "mainly responsible 
for the market manipulation". Waespi resigned in July. 
    The ban has cost Waespi his job as chief executive of 
Aargauische Kantonalbank, a local government-backed lender,  
where he had been due to start next March. 
    In a separate statement, Aargauische KB said it would cut 
its ties to Waespi and that it regretted the "unexpected extent 
of this development".  
    Coop Bank said it accepted FINMA's measures, which include  
correcting organisational problems that the regulator had 
identified. 
(1 US dollar = 0.9465 Swiss franc) 
 
 (Reporting By Katharina Bart; editing by Susan Thomas) 
 ((Katharina.Bart@thomsonreuters.com; +41 58 306 7312; Reuters 
Messaging: katharina.bart.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SWITZERLAND REGULATOR/COOP