It emerged last week that Ackermann had withdrawn his candidacy to join the supervisory board at Deutsche Bank after he steps down as CEO in May 2012. This would leave Ackermann, a Swiss national who has been vice-president of Zurich's board since March 2010, free to take up the chairmanship at Zurich Financial, the paper said, citing sources inside the insurance business. Manfred Gentz, who has been chairman of Zurich's board of directors since 2005, is due to leave his post next year. Both Zurich Financial and Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the report. A financial source said it could be an option for Ackermann to move into the chairman's role but no decision had been taken yet.