UBS promotes Beatriz Martin to Chief Operating Officer amid board changes

ZURICH (Reuters) -Switzerland's UBS on Friday promoted Beatriz Martin to Chief Operating Officer as it announced management changes that included the nomination of UBS veteran Markus Ronner as vice chairman of the bank's board of directors next year.

Martin is a Spaniard who heads the bank's non-core and legacy unit, which handles unwanted assets from Credit Suisse. Credit Suisse collapsed in 2023 and was then acquired by UBS.

Her promotion may encourage speculation that she is among the top internal candidates to replace CEO Sergio Ermotti, who has indicated he plans to step down by early 2027 once the integration of Credit Suisse is concluded.

As COO, Martin's responsibilities will involve finalizing the Credit Suisse integration, group operations, and overseeing the internal consulting and governance teams - tasks that have previously been spread more widely at the bank.

Martin, who is based in London and has so far kept a relatively low profile at the bank, has drawn praise for her role at the non-core unit. She will remain the bank's president of EMEA and UK chief executive, UBS said in a statement.

Other UBS figures said by insiders to be in contention for the CEO job include the bank's Americas president Robert Karofsky and Asia Pacific boss Iqbal Khan.

Ronner, the bank's compliance chief, will as vice chair replace Lukas Gaehwiler, who will not stand for re-election to the board of directors at the annual general meeting in April.

Michelle Bereaux, UBS's Chief Integration Officer, will become head of compliance and operational risk control.

The bank said that governmental and regulatory affairs and group security functions, currently part of compliance, regulatory and governance, will be transferred to CFO Todd Tuckner and HR chief Stefan Seiler, respectively.

(Reporting by Oliver Hirt and Dave Graham, Editing by Miranda Murray and Jan Harvey)