The Zurich-based private bank has appointed a CEO who had previously held the same post at the now-defunct Falcon Private Bank.

Zurich-based IHAG Privatbank has named former Falcon Private Bank chief executive Martin Keller as its CEO, and widened its board of directors.

Keller is taking over from Daniel Lipp, who has left IHAG Privatbank, it said in a statement late last week. Keller is joining from an institution that shut its doors last year.

IHAG Privatbank is owned by Gratian Anda, a descendant of industrialist and arms manufacturer Emil Georg Buehrle. The bank was established to support the financial activities of the different companies of Buehrle. IHFS Holding AG, which owns 100 per cent of the capital of Privatbank IHAG Zürich, is owned by Carol Franz-Bührle and family (20 per cent share) and Gratian Anda and family (80 per cent share).

Additionally, IHAG Privatbank has expanded its board with Marianne Müller, member of the executive board of SWA Swiss Auditors, and Christoph Mauchle, most recently a member of the group management of Liechtenstein-based VP Bank. The bank said that the appointments are designed to position the bank for future growth. The board members are Heinrich Rotach (president), Christoph Mauchle (vice-president); Urs Baumann, Marianne Müller, Susanne Riess und Martin Taufer.

Before working at Falcon, Keller was chief executive for Credit Suisse’s asset management arm, EMEA.

Falcon, owned by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Company, struggled to find its feet in Switzerland after it was kicked out of Singapore by the local regulator about four years ago. The Monetary Authority of Singapore said at the time that it had found significant AML control shortcomings connected to transactions linked to the scandal-hit Malaysian fund 1MDB. Another Swiss bank, BSI (now part of EFG International), also lost its Singaporean licence.