Former UBS CEO Ralph Hamers Joins AI Wealth Management Startup Arta Finance

Ex-UBS boss Hamers joins AI wealth management startup Arta Finance

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. Hamers, who left UBS last year, has also acquired a stake in Arta, joining a host of early stage investors, including former Google chief Eric Schmidt. Led by former Google vice president Caesar Sengupta, Arta emerged from stealth in 2022 promising to bring the kind of financial tools and products normally reserved for the ultra-wealthy to a wider audience. The firm offers clients an AI copilot that, claims its website, is "like having a team of investment analysts, researchers and bankers who are dedicated to helping you build and monitor your public market portfolios". Arta initially launched for accredited investors in the US before landing in Singapore, with plans to enter more markets, including India. In an interview with Bloomberg on his involvement, Hamers says: "My background is really in the crossroads of where tech meets finance. What I see here is my career coming together in helping these guys." Hamers joined UBS in 2020 after 29 years with Dutch lender ING. However, he left UBS last year shortly after it acquired Credit Suisse, replaced by his predecessor Sergio Ermotti.

Former UBS chief Ralph Hamers joins AI wealth management start-up

Former UBS chief executive Ralph Hamers has taken a position at an AI wealth management start-up in his first significant role since leaving the Swiss financial behemoth 18 months ago. Hamers was Europe's highest-paid bank boss when he was at UBS, but left shortly after it agreed to take over its former rival Credit Suisse last spring. He was most recently in the running to become chief executive at UK asset manager Schroders, but lost out to chief financial officer Richard Oldfield. Hamers has agreed to become an external senior adviser to Arta Financial, a wealth management start-up founded by several former Google employees. Based in Silicon Valley and Singapore, it aims to use artificial intelligence to offer high-end wealth management services to mid-market clients. The company initially offered services to US customers, but has recently rolled out its offering to Singapore and plans to attract business in India, where chief executive Caesar Sengupta is from. Hamers has also taken a stake in Arta Financial, which focuses on working with clients with assets over $1mn. While UBS chief executive, the 58-year-old Dutchman attempted to acquire a similar business, striking a deal to buy robo-adviser Wealthfront for $1.4bn in early 2022. But UBS later aborted the deal. Hamers was hired by UBS for his digital expertise and set about trying to improve its technology and he stated his ambition was to turn the storied Swiss institution into a "Netflix for wealth". But his time at UBS was dogged by an investigation in the Netherlands into his involvement in a money-laundering case at ING, the Dutch bank he used to run. Prosecutors are due to decide by the end of the year whether he will be forced to appear in court over the matter or if they will drop the case.

Ex-UBS CEO Ralph Hamers Joins Former Googlers' AI Wealth Firm

Ralph Hamers, the former chief executive officer of UBS Group AG, has joined a wealth firm founded by onetime Google staffers, his first public appointment since exiting the Swiss banking giant last year. Hamers, 58, is an external senior adviser at Arta Finance, a digital-wealth platform leveraging artificial intelligence in an attempt to bring family office-style investing -- long known for catering to the world's billionaires -- to the masses, according to a statement Thursday from the company.