Drive for compliance will push financial firms to spend ￡4.5bn on services this year

摘要

A raft of forthcoming regulations and the need to overhaul ageing back-office systems will drive IT investment in the financial services industry over the next 12 months. Figures from the Computer Weekly IT Expenditure Report, produced by Kew Associates, show that although IT spending in the financial services sector will grow only marginally from ￡11.8bn in 2003 to ￡11.9bn in 2004, spending on computer services is set to grow by 7%. This will mean that in 2004 financial services firms, led by the general insurance and finance house sectors, will spend ￡4.5bn on computer services. The major challenges faced by financial sector IT directors fall into three main areas: using technology to comply with forthcoming regulations such as the Basel 2 code on risk management and international accounting standards; replacing ageing legacy systems; and investing in new technology to improve customer service.