Ralph Adrianus Joseph Gerardus Hamers (born 25 May 1966) is a Dutch businessman who is the UBS Group CEO. He was the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

(CEO) of Dutch bank

ING Group The ING Group ( nl, ING Groep) is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale bankin ...

from October 2013 until June 2020.

Early life

Ralph Hamers was born on 25 May 1966. He has a master of science (MS) in business econometrics/operations research from

Tilburg University Tilburg University is a public research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities, located in Tilburg in the southern part of the Netherlands. Tilburg University h ...

Career

Hamers joined UBS in September 2020 as Group Executive Board member and became the UBS Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on 1 November 2020 replacing

Sergio Ermotti Sergio Pietro Ermotti (born 11 May 1960) is a Swiss manager and former investment banker. In April 2021, Ermotti was elected Chairman of Swiss Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, succeeding Walter Kielholz. He was the Group Ch ...

. Prior to UBS, Hamers spent 29 years at Dutch bank ING Group. Hamers joined ING in 1991 and was the CEO of ING between 1 October 2013 and June 2020. During his time as CEO, he steered the bank to profitability while repaying the Dutch government money it received during the financial crisis. Also under his leadership, ING invested heavily in its digital transformation, relying far more on its online offering and less on its branch network than most rivals, leading to the bank having one of the lowest cost-to-revenue ratios in Europe at the time. In 2018, there was an uproar in the Netherlands following a proposal to raise Hamers' yearly salary from 1.6 million euro to 3 million euro. Following the uproar, the Board withdrew the offer, leaving his salary unchanged. In December 2020, a Dutch court ordered the public prosecutor to open a probe into Hamers' involvement in his previous role as CEO of ING in the company's failure to comply with anti-money laundering regulations in 2018. Although the investigation was settled in 2018 with a €775 million fine paid by ING and, according to

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, the public prosecutor stated that "it didn’t find enough evidence for criminal accusations against individuals at ING, including the top management", Hamers' investigation could continue into 2022 at the earliest.

Other activities

Institute of International Finance An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

(IIF), Member of the Board

Personal life

Hamers is married, with twins.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamers, Ralph 1966 births Living people Dutch bankers Dutch chief executives in the finance industry People from Simpelveld Tilburg University alumni