My Journey

Josef Ackermann is a household name: banker, business leader, crisis manager – and a controversial figure for many. Hailed one moment as “Switzerland’s best export” for the banking industry, castigated the next as the “bogeyman of the nation;” Ackermann was never out of the headlines for long. He traveled to New York in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. He was an advisor to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, numerous finance ministers and top EU politicians during the global financial and eurozone crises, and played a key role in preventing the meltdown of the global financial system. For the first time, Ackermann recounts the dramatic hours negotiating the rescue of Hypo Real Estate, the giant German lender that came within a whisker of collapse. He takes a critical look at the causes and lessons of banking crises, analyzes the downfall of Credit Suisse, calls for “war games for bank executives;” tougher stress tests, and greater powers for Switzerland’s regulator FINMA, including a “Special Financial Action Task Force.” Ackermann puts forward concrete suggestions on how to prevent a future financial collapse and formulates his “Ten Maxims of a Good Banker.” The author dedicates other chapters to his childhood and family life and shares many personal anecdotes of encounters with politicians, business leaders and royalty around the world. “To me he has always been a person of great dignity, elegance, insight, perspicacity, with the ability to grasp issues in next to no time.” Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank