Corkman Colm Kelleher's secret prep helped pull off one of the biggest bank deals in history

Colm Kelleher: 'You have to understand that there is huge amount of risk in integrating these businesses.'

UBS Group pulled off one of the biggest bank deals ever in a matter of days. But the groundwork had been laid for years.

When Corkman Colm Kelleher became chairman last April, he inherited feasibility studies by predecessor Axel Weber dating back to at least 2020 on what a takeover of Credit Suisse Group would look like. And early this year, after clients pulled tens of billions of dollars from the neighbour, Kelleher called on a small group of top advisers from his alma mater Morgan Stanley to ramp up contingency planning, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.