British financial services firms will invest a large portion of their budget in the next two and half years into data analysis and process automation – says the report of a leading study by CBI/PwC.
Conducted every quarter to assess the growth and trend of financial services in the British banking and investment circles, the survey covered 94 leading FS firms handling these two important areas of IT update.
The firms confirmed that while they agreed to a cut-back on their budget allocations on land and building, plant and machinery and transport, the budget for IT especially for the two vital areas affecting Fintech would be growing at a faster pace in the next two years.
The trend for investing more into IT based applications have been part of the growth strategy for these firms since 2009. 80% of the respondents agreed that the IT infrastructure is crucial to increase efficiency, speed and to improve customer relationships and the technology will be the main framework for such progress of services.
Process automation has taken at least 50% of the budget preference for some firms, whilst the other two-thirds of the surveyed firms plan to invest in data analysis, customer history and risk profiling measures.
IT investments will take larger budget allocations in the future and they shall look into possibilities of investing in AI-based operations and at least 35% will look into situation-based data analysis such as sensors and wearables.
Rain Newton-Smith, chief economist, CBI, says: “It’s encouraging to see financial services firms continuing to seek out future opportunities, and staying ahead of the curve when it comes to investment in new and innovative technologies.”
As often forecast, Fintech will become the very backbone of the industry in the years to come.
