Peter Bauer studied Economics and Business Administration at St. Gallen University in Switzerland and the London School of Economics. He spent his entire professional career with Swiss Bank Cooperation and, since the merger, with UBS. His major tasks included that of a Chief Operations Officer for the German subsidiary of SBC, the build-up and the management of a Global Compliance Organisation, Head of Divisional Governance (Legal, Compliance, Communications) for the Global Private Bank, the Chief Risk Officer for the Retail Bank in Switzerland and the Global Private Bank and, finally, he acted as Global Head of Regulatory Relations and Strategy for the UBS Group.

In April of 2004, after 26 years of a banking career, Peter decided to retire to have more time for strategic aspects of compliance at large and, in particular, money laundering, the fight against terrorism, corruption and financial crime as well as their impact on the reputation risk for the firm. Peter is also one of the initiators and a founding member of the Wolfsberg Group which has actively contributed to international standards against money laundering (incl. corruption) and the financing of terrorism.

Today he acts as Senior Advisor to the Wolfsberg Group and the Basel Institute of Governance as well as international organizations and banks.