Swiss bank UBS is to centralise its IT infrastructure operations in a restructuring effort aimed at cutting costs.
The bank has confirmed plans - first reported in German newspaper SonntagsZeitung – to create a new streamlined IT infrastructure department housing 3000 IT specialists.
The unit, known as IT International, will be based in New York and Zurich and will have over-arching responsibility for the bank's technology infrastructure. Individual business IT units will maintain responsibility for applications running over the network.
While it is not clear how many jobs will be lost as a result of the changes, the bank has set its sights on shedding some 800 staff across the board in Switzerland during 2004.
UBS has declined to comment on speculation that the IT restructuring will save Sfr150 million in the first year, rising to Sfr250 million in 2005.
The new structure will become operational in the second-quarter of 2004.