Swiss fintech Radicant parts ways with CEO Anders Bally
Swiss fintech Radicant, the digital banking arm of Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank Group (BLKB), has dismissed its CEO and co-founder Anders Bally with immediate effect.
Anders Bally is out at Radicant
The fintech’s board of directors, led by chair Marco Primavesi, parted ways with Bally over differences in approach to “leadership and communications”, with chief product officer (CPO) Rouven Leuener and chief financial officer (CFO) Roland Kläy set to jointly take the reins in the interim while the firm looks for a replacement.
The clash between Bally and the Radicant board over communication styles may refer to an internal letter sent to employees in which the former CEO described news reports detailing costs associated with the fintech as a “shitstorm”.
Inside Paradeplatz published the letter, which reads: “Dear Radicants, I would like to inform you about a shitstorm against our owner BLKB for their investments and appeal to you to forward any requests from journalists to me.”
Because BLKB is majority-owned by the regional canton of Zurich, Bally says the firm is “exposed to political opinions”.
“Some of the politicians in this non-urban state – especially the older ones – have difficulties understanding the disruptive aspects Radicant brings to the table and hence criticise BLKB for having invested so much in Radicant.”
Radicant is set to launch next month after receiving its banking licence from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) in May last year.
In a statement, Radicant’s board says: “With this new leadership team, we are confident that the market entry will become a great success.”
