When Andrea Orcel turned his back on 20 years at Merrill Lynch last month to become co-chief executive of the investment bank at UBS – just days before Bank of America was set to make him president of its European business – the implications for both banks seemed stark.
His departure was almost universally heralded as a catastrophic loss for the US bank, leaving a huge hole at the top of its European business just as it was starting to rebuild its battered investment banking franchise. And for UBS, the surprise hire by group chief executive Sergio Ermotti - a colleague of Orcel's for 16 years at Merrill Lynch - was trumpeted as a coup that sent a clear statement of intent to staff, clients and rivals: UBS is firmly committed to investment banking.