I.T. Budgets at U.S. Banks continue to grow, despite Recession
Abstract
In a new report, Celent examines US banks plans for IT investments and finds that US banks will spend over US$34 billion on technology in 2002
Despite the current recessionary environment in the USA, US banks will increase their technology spending this year by over 4% compared to 2001, according to a new report from Celent Communications. This new report examines the trends and business issues driving this growth, including the decline in the number of banks and competitive pressures from non-banks.
The report shows how top banks are spending in excess of US$2 billion each annually on technology, with the largest bank reaching a staggering spending level of US$5 billion in 2002.
According to Octavio Marenzi, managing director at Celent, "banks have continued to increase their IT budgets, even while many other industries are holding back. In part, banks have little choice in this -- a very large proportion of their spending is on maintaining existing infrastructure. However, banks are also increasingly viewing technology as a competitive differentiator, as a tool with which to wrest market share from their competition."
The report explains how consolidation in the banking industry is actually driving increased spending on IT. According to Octavio Marenzi this is because "larger banks do not only spend more on IT than smaller institutions, they spend a greater percentage overall. The largest commercial banks in the USA spend as much as 25% of their total expenses on IT, with certain specialist banks spending even higher percentages. Small banks tend to spend a far lower percentage of their total expenses on technology."