"I am not immortal, therefore somebody some day will have to be my succession," Ermotti told journalists during a conference presenting Switzerland's biggest bank's fourth-quarter results, but added that a change was not imminent.

"Any changes are years away. We have a process always in place over the years to look internally and externally for talents. We hired from the outside, we promoted people from the inside over the years."

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Michael Shields)