Successfully integrating all IT systems will be a decisive hurdle in the Credit Suisse rescue. A very small number of specialists will determine how it gets done.
UBS employs about 20,000 staff in its IT sector. Even though the total number of employees at the bank is only 74,000, that ratio is still par for the course in the industry.
But the group of «Distinguished Engineers» who have a decisive hand in the success of the integration is far smaller. Worldwide, there are only 58 of them, according to the financial employment portal «Efinancialcareers».
Engineering Culture
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti has called the integration process one of the riskiest parts of rescuing what was Switzerland's second-largest bank. He indicated that there were about 3,000 IT applications at Credit Suisse and that roughly 300 would be kept.
Ermottis predecessor Ralph Hamers attempted to drive through an engineering culture at UBS, one in which project managers had less say than specialists and programmers. While in other parts of the bank, he de-emphasized ranks such as that of Managing Director, he created the role of «Distinguished Engineer» in the IT area.
Mass Redundancies
The takeover has prompted the reappearance of longstanding cultural issues. «Technology teams are headed by people who were never developers and can't roll up their sleeves and do the work themselves when it needs to get done», a Credit Suisse engineer said, requesting anonymity.
According to the engineer, he plans to leave the bank, not voluntarily. UBS currently plans to eliminate about 90 percent of the Credit Suisse IT specialists.
