Special Feature
Invisible Chains T
Security & Financial Services Technology By Anne MacRae, Head of Financial Services at Fujitsu UK & Ireland
Predicting the changes ahead in financial services (FS) businesses is a tough task, which even a crystal ball can’t solve. IT Managers and C-Level executives have spent many restless nights exploring where priorities will lie in the future. Now, Independent research commissioned by Fujitsu means that many of these burning questions have an answer. Here we will explore the findings looking at the industry’s current focus and concerns surrounding IT and the significant role security is playing in this.
wo years ago, we commissioned
independent research which set out to benchmark the modern FS business, particularly in relation to technology. That initial report, which interviewed 55 FS CIOs, spoke of the need for organisations to become more agile in order to keep up with everything from
regulation to customer demand. In 2014, we wanted to repeat that research to see what might have changed, what might have stayed the same, and what the differences meant for the sector.
The first report resulting from this new insight, Missed opportunities, explored the technology side of the equation. It looked in-depth at the attitudes - and barriers - towards the adoption of new and developing technology. Vitally, it found that the market has stagnated when it comes to areas like cloud, mobile and Big Data, some minor progress outweighed by a substantial slow-moving majority.
Where is today’s FS IT department focused? Optimism in the sector is at a record high, according to the latest financial services sector survey, released by the CBI and PwC in January this year. The 68 percentage point rise, combined with the fastest growth in business volumes since the start of the crisis, seems to indicate a
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return to better times for the sector, and not a moment too soon.
While things might be looking up though, it’s hard to forget the lessons of the past few years. Even as recently as October 2012, the sector was still dealing with the fallout of the global economic crisis, business volumes dipping unexpectedly and leading some to speculate that the road to recovery might be longer than anyone had foreseen.
Our research revealed that while cost-cutting has fallen away in 2014, it certainly hasn’t vanished. 27% stressed its importance, compared to 52% two years ago, but that still made it the third most important challenge being faced by today’s FS IT department. Improving customer experience and security were joint first and upgrading current systems came second. Budgets might not be top of the agenda, but trimming the fat is still high on the priority list for many.
There’s a big difference between reducing cost and becoming more efficient, and we’re pleased to see that the latter is now just as important to UK FS organisations. Only 15% cited this as a priority in 2012, when sweeping cuts were seen as more beneficial than more effective IT. The swing towards efficiency represents the desire to do more for less, without sacrificing quality.
The optimism in the sector is also continuing as more than a quarter of FS IT departments are now gearing up for a future in which growth - not decline - is the standard. With 18% focusing on growth in our 2012 survey, it was an issue that firmly occupied the middle ground in the IT department’s mind. This time around, it sits just below cost reduction, in fourth. In many ways, success here will depend largely on a combination of the department’s top two priorities. After all, if the IT team can make a tangible contribution to improving the customer experience and helping the company become more efficient, maximising growth should be a logical by-product. It is great to see growth and optimism in the sector; however security appears to be a persistent barrier in the development of FS IT strategies.
Security concerns are blocking technology adoption
When looking at the current state of the sector, security cannot be ignored. Security threats are becoming an ever increasing problem to businesses today, with malicious and crippling attacks affecting high-profile brands’ businesses and reputations. The financial services sector has not been immune.
Interestingly, the Bank of England has just announced its new CBEST framework, which will see hackers working for private security firms identify the vulnerabilities of
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