Should the Government Force Core Systems Upgrades?

Interesting, non-Olympic news came out of jolly old England this week, as Intellect, the trade association for the UK technology sector, today called for British regulators to force banks to upgrade their legacy IT systems.

According to the group, banks need to tackle the "substandard" infrastructure that Intellects says underpins the majority of the financial system.

Certainly in the U.S., the banking industry is tackling how best to upgrade or replace legacy core systems long past their sell-by date. While many banks acknowledge the need to move on from legacy systems, many are unwilling or unable to do a complete replacement, instead opting for the safer "evolutionary" approach of upgrading piece by piece.

However, this is the first I've heard of a group urging the government to get involved in forcing legacy upgrades. Would this be warranted, or an overstepping of regulatory bounds?

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio