The change brings to an end an eventful time as CEO for Straehle, who had held that role since April 2015. The acquisition of BSI, a private bank headquartered in Lugano, has had some difficulties – BSI in Singapore was ejected from the Asian city-state last year by the Monetary Authority of Singapore because of serious breaches of anti-money laundering controls. Falcon Private Bank, another private bank, was also kicked out of Singapore for similar reasons. As a result, the original purchase price agreed by EFG for the bank was subsequently reduced. EFG said the price it is paying for BSI is worth SFr971 million francs ($1.01 billion), as opposed to the estimated SFr1.06 billion set in October 2016. That price had already been originally reduced from the level when the deal was first announced in February last year.
In July, EFG International reported that it made an underlying net profit of SFr74.5 million ($78.2 million) in the first six months of this year from SFr38.1 million a year earlier.