Financial firms plan to increase their technology spending over the next year, latest survey of financial executives by IPC disclosed.
Two-thirds of respondents, of whom 85 percent are C-suite-level respondents, expect to increase technology spending in 2017.
The main reasons cited to rise the spending are – to realize cost efficiencies, gain competitive advantage, manage compliance and replace legacy systems.
Latest forecast from research firm Gartner shows that Worldwide overall IT spending would reach $3.5 trillion in 2017, up 2.9 percent from 2016 estimated spending of $3.4 trillion.
The bright spot for the IT industry has been the software and IT services segments. Software spending is projected to grow 6 percent in 2016, and it will grow another 7.2 percent in 2017 to total $357 billion.
John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner had noted that countries such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland are increasing their IT spend to contend as a viable alternative to banks in the U.K in the wake of Brexit.
Gartner also pointed out that in financial services, analysts expect to see some countries in Europe put more investment in IT to offer a more viable option for EU countries than the U.K.
Another Gartner report found that IT spending by banking and securities firms in India will reach $7.8 billion in 2017, an increase of 8.6 per cent from 2016.
This forecast provides total enterprise IT spending for internal spending and spending data on data centre, devices, software, IT services and telecom services.
The IPC survey further pointed out that compliance with regulatory requirements is driving firms to make investments in managed services, network infrastructure, electronic connectivity and compliance oversight.
Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed intend to deploy hosted solutions to support their technology infrastructure in contrast with 46 percent of survey respondents in 2015 survey.
Further, 54 percent of the respondents stated they are currently implementing cloud-based services in contrast to 45 percent of survey respondents in 2015.
“Our survey reaffirms that as technology spending continues to grow, firms need expertise, guidance and innovative end-to-end solutions now more than ever,” said Michael Speranza, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, M&A and Marketing, IPC.
“At IPC we are working closely with financial markets companies making moves to minimize infrastructure management and empowering them with the cost efficiencies and compliance oversight benefits provided by our cloud-based platforms and services.”
The survey also found financial firms will face following challenges in 2017 -Implementing the right technology infrastructure to drive business, Risk management, Data analytics and reporting, Entering new geographies.
