FILE PHOTO - Sergio Ermotti, CEO of UBS gestures during a panel discussion at the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce in Zurich, Switzerland January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd WIegmann

ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS UBSG.S Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said on Tuesday any changes to the bank's leadership remain years away and that the bank remains open to both hiring and promoting in its search for talent.

“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.”