Swiss Government Appoints Thomas Bauer New Finma Chairman

The Swiss government on Wednesday appointed Thomas Bauer, an expert in banking law, to head its financial regulator.

Bauer will succeed Anne Heritier Lachat as chairman of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or Finma, which is run by Mark Branson, a former banker for UBS Group AG.

Heritier Lachat, who has headed the regulator since 2011, is stepping down at the end of the year.

A member of the conservative Swiss People’s Party, Bauer was until 2014 a partner at Ernst & Young LLP in Switzerland. He will join Finma’s board of directors in August and assume his responsibilities as chairman, a non-partisan post, on Jan. 1, the government said when the statement came out.

Bauer has proven expertise in areas including combating money laundering and in insolvency and restructuring law, the government said.

Three other people were appointed to the board to fill vacancies starting in 2016. They are Renate Schwob, Marlene Amstad and Bernard Keller.