Guido Buehler, who co-founded SEBA Bank and served as its chief executive for four years, stepped down on March 7, 2022. SEBA Bank announced the change on PR Newswire1. The board named Franz Bergmueller to succeed him effective April 1, 2022. Bergmueller had until then been an executive at the insurance-software firm Adcubum. A Zurich financial blog, Inside Paradeplatz, had reported the coming change first. The Swiss outlet finews.ch noted that scoop on March 7, 2022, the day SEBA made its own announcement2.
Five leadership moves at AMINA Bank on the record since 2021
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Sept. 14, 2021 | Gwerder became CFO. Alena Nicolai Gwerder was named Chief Financial Officer of AMINA Bank |
| Sept. 14, 2021 | Matter left as CFO. David Matter left as Chief Financial Officer of AMINA Bank |
| Sept. 14, 2021 | Baretta left as Head of Client. Philipp Baretta left as Head of Client and Investment Solutions of AMINA Bank |
| March 7, 2022 | Buehler left as CEO. Guido Buehler left as Chief Executive Officer of AMINA Bank |
| Feb. 7, 2023 | Yu became CEO, APAC. Amy Yu was named Chief Executive Officer, APAC of AMINA Bank |
18 CEO exits on the record in 2022
CEO exits CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2022: 18
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 7 |
| 2020 | 9 |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 11 |
| 2024 | 20 |
| 2025 | 20 |
| 2026 | 18 |
The move
Buehler framed his exit as the end of a phase he had finished. “I am very proud and honoured to have been at the helm of SEBA Bank's incredible journey over the last four years, to plan, build and run the first Digital Asset Bank,” Buehler said in the release. “With the successful closing of the Series C funding and the opening of first branch in Emirates, we have reached another milestone and laid a foundation for further growth. It is the right moment for a new leadership to bring SEBA Bank to new levels,” he said1.
Päivi Rekonen, chair of SEBA's board, credited Buehler with turning a concept into a licensed bank. “In four years, the team has turned a vision into a leading player in the field of digital assets banking,” Rekonen said in the release. “Guido has relentlessly driven this development with great personal commitment and made SEBA Bank an innovation leader in the industry,” she said1. finews.ch reported that Buehler called the last four years intense. He told the outlet directly that "a cut" was needed at this point, for the bank and for himself2.
Before and after at SEBA
SEBA Bank had just closed a CHF 110 million Series C round in January 2022, two months before the handover, the release said1. The bank was founded in April 2018. SEBA received a Swiss banking and securities dealer license in August 2019 and a CISA license in September 2021, which made it, by its own account, the first institution of its kind FINMA had licensed with a core capability in digital assets. In February 2022, it secured financial-services permission from the Abu Dhabi Global Market and opened an Abu Dhabi office.
Bergmueller brought thirty years of experience transforming businesses, mostly at German insurance firms1. He had sat on Adcubum's executive board since 2019, the release said. finews.ch described the handover as a shift from a founder phase to a corporate phase, with an information-technology expert taking the operating reins2. Buehler stayed invested in SEBA, among whose owners counted the private bank Julius Bär, while skipping a direct move onto the board, finews.ch reported.
What came next
By September 27, 2022, six months into the job, finews.com interviewed Bergmueller. Its header noted he had "led Seba Bank since April 2022," confirming the handover had taken hold as planned3. Years later, the appointment still held. AMINA Bank, the renamed SEBA Bank, named Michael Benz to lead its Hong Kong and Asia-Pacific business on August 17, 2025, in a release that described him reporting directly to "CEO Franz Bergmueller"4. That 2025 release skips Buehler's name entirely. The release credits Bergmueller instead with steering AMINA through a 2024 that the release said grew revenue 69 percent, to $40.4 million.
Sources
- SEBA Bank, "Franz M. Bergmüller Appointed CEO of SEBA Bank," PR Newswire, March 7, 2022, https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/franz-m-bergmuller-appointed-ceo-of-seba-bank-837664884.html
- Samuel Gerber, "Abrupter Wechsel an der Spitze von Seba," finews.ch, March 7, 2022, https://www.finews.ch/news/banken/50432-seba-guido-buehler-ceo-wechsel-franz-bergmueller
- "Seba CEO Franz Bergmueller: «Crypto protects private property»," finews.com, September 27, 2022, https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/53503-seba-ceo-franz-bergmueller-crypto-protects-private-property
- AMINA Bank (via FF News), "AMINA Bank Taps Banking Leader Michael Benz to Lead APAC Expansion," August 17, 2025, https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/hiring/amina-bank-taps-banking-leader-michael-benz-to-lead-apac-expansion/