We already posted a reference to a presentation by the CFO of UBS at the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch (BASML) banking conference last week. I was alerted to the availability of the RBS one (by Simon Hester) on Finextra here (who BTW slightly over-read or speed-read the presentation in my view, talking about a 6billion sterling technology budget) however the Hester presentation is of real interest, there are some frank confessionals and we see the costs of the APS beautifully elucidated.

This is obviously Hester beginning the process of the "beauty parade" world tour, to raise the equity he needs to escape the Treasury clutches. He has his work cut out, there is obvious skepticism in the asset managers about an issue of this size. It is also of course useful to compare and contrast the relative positions of UBS and RBS from the two presentations referred here. UBS which ran a far larger CDO warehousing business than RBS (both were globally significant) has escaped the Swiss Federation cleanly and swiftly with a nice return to the Swiss population, the outlook for the Scots is not so hot & we really do not know if the London equity market can absorb the required RBS rights issue right now with all the other capital calls and (government) bond issuance going on around it.

You technologists have switched off already but you shouldn't - understanding the business requirement is just as important in Information Engineering as the lastest REST architecture for example. This presentation from RBS lays bare the soul of the business requirement at RBS but also seems to suggest that most of the work is done (well they would say that wouldn't they, given the overall business strategy).

Take a look at this excellent presentation.