Rules and Returns

Mistry, Marketing Director EMEA (Sagent Products), Group 1 Software

Regulatory compliance is seen by many technology analysts as being the main driver for a substantial revival in IT spending in 2004 and beyond. Looking at the global banking community, research from analyst firm IDC found that “meeting regulatory requirements, managing the customer relationship, managing risk, reducing costs and attracting new customers” were the most important factors to banking management this year. Starting from 2004, banks are expected to dedicate a larger part of their IT budgets to the adaptation of their IT systems to the new Basel II requirements and, in particular, to the development of risk management solutions. Another analyst firm, Datamonitor, is forecasting Basel II spend by European banks of US$1.9 billion in 2004, rising to US$2 billion in 2005.