(Bloomberg) — Ralph Hamers, the former chief executive of UBS Group AG, has joined a wealth firm founded by former Google employees, his first public appointment since leaving the Swiss banking giant last year.
Hamers, 58, is a senior outside adviser at Arta Finance, a digital wealth platform that uses artificial intelligence in an effort to bring family office-style investing — long known for serving the world's billionaires — to measures, according to a statement Thursday. from the company.
He also acquired a stake in the Silicon Valley and Singapore-based firm, joining more than 100 technology and finance professionals, including Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Alphabet Inc.'s Google, as early-stage investors. Arta said in the statement. which did not disclose financial terms.
Hamers was until last year one of the world's top finance executives, serving as group CEO at UBS for about two years. He was replaced in April 2023 by Sergio Ermotti, who returned to lead the 162-year-old bank for its integration with local rival Credit Suisse. Hamers previously held a similar role at ING Groep NV, where he was credited with transforming the Dutch lender from victim of the financial crisis to pioneer of digital banking.
“My background is really at the crossroads where technology meets finance,” Hamers said in a Zoom interview. “What I see here is my career coming together to help these guys.”
Gold emerged from stealth mode in 2022 with the aim of exploiting the gap between the pool of brokerages that offer commission-free trading in retail investment apps and the large offerings of private banks that typically require clients to have more than $10 million active.
Led by CEO Caesar Sengupta, a former Google vice president, the firm initially focused on so-called accredited investors in the US, which the Securities and Exchange Commission defines as individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million or an annual salary of at least $200,000.
It is now offering its services to accredited investors in the Asian wealth hub of Singapore, according to the statement, as well as developing additional AI-based products for its platform where users can access private equity, venture capital and opportunities. of real estate.
Arta has ambitions to reach investors in other markets, including Sengupta's native India, where the number of ultra-wealthy individuals is growing amid a wealth boom led by industrialists such as Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.
“India is going to be huge,” Sengupta, who founded Arta with seven others from Google, said in an interview, declining to disclose the firm's assets under management or valuation.
Hamers was recently among the candidates being considered for the role of CEO of Schroders Plc before the UK asset management firm appointed Richard Oldfield to the position last month.
He is too due to discovery later this year whether prosecutors will charge him in connection with a 2018 settlement from ING over the Amsterdam-based lender's failure to follow anti-money laundering rules during his tenure.
Hamers is involved in several other financial technology projects, which he declined to discuss in an interview, and stressed that he is in no rush to return to any executive role.
“I basically decided to do what I really like to do, then see what happens,” he said.