IT Spending Trends in European Banking, 2004

Celent Expects IT Spending at European Banks to Exceed EU44.6 bn in 2004

In a new report, "IT Spending Trends in European Banking, 2004," Celent provides detailed information on the types of IT investments being made this year by European banks.

This year, the leading European bank in terms of IT spending will be HSBC, with an estimated IT budget of EU3billion. Deutsche Bank is second with EU2.6 billion allocated to IT, a position it shares with UBS, which has allocated the same amount to IT. ABN Amro is fourth, with an estimated EU2.2 billion budgeted for IT. These four banks are members of the small club of European banks that are expected to spend more than EU2 billion on IT in 2004.

Despite the economic improvement expected for 2004, European banks will invest less in IT this year than in the past 4 years. In fact, the European banking industry will invest 5% less in IT in 2004 than in 2003, spending a total of EU44,601 million.

"Despite a global IT spending reduction, the investment in new projects will be fairly high this year at 9.5% of the total IT budget," says Axel Pierron, Celent analyst and author of the report.

"Cost reduction will again be a factor, particularly maintenance costs," Pierron adds.

The report includes a clear discussion of the IT priorities at European banks, including how budgets are being allocated and the business trends driving those decisions.

The 34-page report contains 24 figures.

of Celent Communications' Retail Banking and Wholesale Banking and research services can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left. Non-members should contact info@celent.com for more information.