FAZ exclusive: Bankhaus Metzler receives a board spokesman for the first time

DAt its meeting on October 10, the Supervisory Board of Bankhaus Metzler will make new appointments to its top management and set the course for the management of the private bank in the long term. According to information from the FAZ, the 60-year-old Gerhard Wiesheu, previously responsible for asset management and foreign business on the board, will be appointed “board spokesman”. Franz von Metzler, son of the head of the family Friedrich von Metzler, is to be appointed to the board. “We can’t comment on that at this point in time. Please understand that we do not want to anticipate the decision of the supervisory board,” said the spokeswoman for Bankhaus Metzler on request.

Since Friedrich von Metzler retired from the management of the bank in May 2018, Emmerich Müller has been leading Metzler-Bank as the unofficial primus inter pares. The 66-year-old banker will retire in the summer of 2023. Then, with the 60-year-old Wiesheu, the second non-family member in a row will move to the head of the management of Bankhaus Metzler. Wiesheu is even equipped with the official insignia of the “board spokesman”.

But Friedrich’s son, Franz von Metzler, could soon run the bank. After working as an analyst for the bank HSBC in London, Franz von Metzler has been working at the bank since 2014, which has been family-owned without interruption since it was founded in 1674. In July 2020, Franz von Metzler, now 36 years old, was appointed one of the managing directors of the subsidiary Metzler Asset Management GmbH, which reports to Wiesheu.

It stands to reason that Franz von Metzler would move to the board of the parent company, take over asset management there instead of Wiesheu and then succeed him in a few years as chairman of the board. According to information from the FAZ, this should happen faster than those who know the bank thought.

Apparently Franz von Metzler will move to the board at the beginning of 2023, which will also result in a change in departmental responsibility. Wiesheu will take over the high-profile private banking, i.e. advice and asset management for private customers, from Müller. This gives Wiesheu the opportunity to put his stamp on Metzler’s domestic business even more. So far, Wiesheu Metzler has been called “Foreign Minister”. The Upper Bavarian met his Japanese wife Yumiko as a teenager on a language holiday in the English seaside resort of Brighton, learned fluent Japanese, then built up asset management first for Commerzbank and then after moving to Metzler in 2001 for the Frankfurt bank in Japan; Wiesheu is now responsible for all of Metzler’s foreign business, in addition to Japan, above all in America and China.

Often present on state visits

Wiesheu has regularly represented the Frankfurt banking industry on state visits for years – when Deutsche Bank temporarily fell out of favor in the Chancellery after the financial crisis – alone, now together with Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing, as most recently during the visit of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was seen in Canada in the business delegation.

The busy Wiesheu is also interested in culture, because of his commitment to the Richard Wagner Festival he is now an honorary member of the Society of Friends of Bayreuth. A few months ago, Wiesheu was even awarded the Federal Cross of Merit by Hesse’s Prime Minister at the time, Volker Bouffier (CDU). Finally, Wiesheu has significantly intensified his public engagement in the Frankfurt financial center since he took over the presidency of the 75-strong Frankfurt Main Finance eV in November 2020. A second two-year term of office for Wiesheu for this financial center initiative, which was founded in 2008, seems certain. Due to his position at Metzler, which will be highlighted in the future, Wiesheu will probably be seen more often.

Conversion to AG initially without consequences

Although Bankhaus Metzler changed from a partnership limited by shares (KGaA) to a “real” stock corporation in June 2021, there will still be no CEO there. But unlike his predecessor Müller, Wiesheu was given the official title of “CEO”, as it used to be common at Commerzbank, before the Anglo-Saxon capital market thinking introduced the post of CEO and was equated with the chairman of the board. At Metzler, it has been said so far, the culture is different. There were so-called primi inter pares here, shaped by the earlier partner structure, with Müller and Friedrich von Metzler on the board, but they didn’t need a title.

That is now changing. Wiesheu will have a prominent position on the Management Board and, like his two predecessors, will represent the face of the bank until the family, probably in the person of Franz von Metzler, takes over management again. Metzler is family-owned anyway: 40 percent of the bank’s shares belong to Franz von Metzler, the perspective board spokesman; 40 percent of his sister Elena, who, as a mother of two, by no means limits herself to her role as a member of the supervisory board, but – just like the father, as the bank says – visits customers one after the other with great enthusiasm.

The remaining 20 percent of the shares are held by Leonhard von Metzler, son of Friedrich’s deceased cousin Christoph von Metzler. However, it is not yet the turn of the twelfth generation of the Metzler Bank dynasty since 1674 to run the bank. With Wiesheu, they will soon have someone at the top with whom it is easy to wait for the right moment.