Raymond Baer, chairman of the Julius Baer private bank that bears his family name, is standing down from his role as chairman.

Raymond Baer, chairman of the Julius Baer private bank that bears his family name, is standing down from his role as chairman after having been associated with the firm for almost 25 years, it announced today. As part of the change, Baer will now lead a committee dealing with tax affairs in the US.

Baer will stay as on honorary chairman as of the annual general meeting of the bank’s shareholders on 11 April. Daniel Sauter, a board member since 2007, will stand for election to the chairmanship on that AGM date, Julius Baer said in a statement.

Sauter has had a financial and corporate industry career lasting almost 30 years. He started in the banking and finance industry and moved on to the commodity business in 1983. He held the position of chief financial officer at Glencore International from 1989 to 1998 and was CEO and managing director of Xstrata from 1995 until 2001. Since then he has served on the board of numerous listed and non-listed companies.

Meanwhile, in his role as honorary chairman, Baer will continue to support the bank in “finding constructive solutions for the past chapters affecting Julius Baer and the banking industry at large”, the bank said, pointing out that he has been elected to chair a special committee overseeing the ongoing cooperation with US authorities over tax issues.

In February Julius Baer said it expected to have to pass over client data as part of the US investigation into wealthy US citizens who have used Swiss banks to evade US taxes. Along with a number of other Swiss banks, Julius Baer no longer provides offshore banking services to US clients.

The firm has seen a number of changes during Baer’s chairmanship, not least its move to make Asia its second “domestic market” as the firm sought new overseas markets.

In 2005, Julius Baer introduced a single share structure, with the family giving up the majority of the voting rights; the firm increased its market share via acquisitions and in 2009, became a “pure-play” private bank by separating its private banking and the asset management businesses. It oversaw SFr258 billion (around $281.4 billion) of client assets at the end of last year.