Bank WIR: Marc Reimann elected new Chairman of the Board of Directors
At the Annual General Meeting of Bank WIR, the focus was on elections to the Board of Directors: Marc Reimann is the new Chairman and thus the successor to Karin Zahnd Cadoux. Chantal Lutz and Michael Benes were newly elected.
For the first time since 2019, the Annual General Meeting of Bank WIR was held physically at Messe Basel. Back in February, the purely Swiss cooperative bank had presented an increase in profits to 15.7 million Swiss francs, strong loan growth and total assets at a new record level (6.05 billion Swiss francs) for the 2022 financial year. "Especially in this challenging environment with numerous political and economic turmoils, we are particularly proud that our operational strength is once again bearing fruit," CEO Bruno Stiegeler had commented on the result.
Based on years of solid results, the Annual General Meeting approved the dividend of 10.75 Swiss francs proposed by the Board of Directors. As in previous years, the distribution will take the form of an optional dividend ("dividend with reinvestment" or cash dividend) and - calculated on the cash dividend variant - corresponds to a yield of 2.2 percent. The distribution on participation certificates held as private assets is also tax-free. Over the past twelve months, the share price has increased by 9.3 percent.
Marc Reimann to succeed Karin Zahnd Cadoux
In March 2022, the current Chairman of the Board of Directors, Karin Zahnd Cadoux, had already announced that she would not stand for election at the AGM 2023 for personal reasons. The voters followed the proposal of the Board of Directors and elected Marc Reimann as the new Chairman by a large majority. The 42-year-old Reimann has already been a member of the Board of Directors of Bank WIR since 2013 and its Vice Chairman since 2021. The entrepreneur and managing director of Zirkumflex AG in Cham is very familiar with the challenges of Bank WIR's customer base and has been supporting SMEs from various industries as a management consultant since 2018.
Due to the term limit for members of the Board of Directors, a successor for Kornel Tinguely also had to be found. Chantal Lutz and Michael Benes were newly elected to the Board of Directors of Bank WIR. Chantal Lutz (32) is a lawyer at Domenig & Partner Rechtsanwälte AG in Berne with a focus on technology law and heads the IT legal team. Michael Benes (47) holds a degree in business administration and is a certified auditor and audit expert. The re-election of the current board members Germann Wiggli (since 2019), Heinz Fuchs, Christoph Lenz (both since 2021) and Philipp Berger (since 2022) was uncontested.
Amendment of the Articles of Association
In addition, the General Meeting approved an amendment to the Articles of Association that will enable Bank WIR to offer the variants of a ballot and a virtual General Meeting in the future. "This timely and forward-looking step makes it easier for the members of the cooperative to participate in the decisions, which is so important," outgoing president Zahnd Cadoux commented on the decision.
Source: Bank WE
