Global Bank IT Spend to Reach $118.6 Billion in 2013: Report

Research firm Ovum predicts that investment in mobile will drive the spending increase.

IT spending by banks globally will reach $118.6 billion in 2013, according to U.K. analyst group Ovum.

Ovum says this spending increase is directly tied in to bank CIOs focusing on customer satisfaction and revenue growth.

Overall, the analyst firm predicts North American banks will increase their IT spending by 3.3 percent in 2013, ahead of their European counterparts (1.8 percent) and second to Asia (5.1 percent).

Ovum believes the increased IT spending by North American banks heralds an end of the cost-cutting measures seen previously by the global banking industry. Instead, a focus on digital channels, such as online and mobile banking, and digital marketing activities will enable them to improve customer satisfaction and revenue growth strategies and fuel cross-selling and upselling opportunities in the short and mid-term.

According to the firm, mobile banking is the clear IT investment priority in 2013 among the digital channels, as retail banks attempt to capitalize on the features unique to mobile, such as location-based services. According to the report, the "other channels" category, which includes mobile banking, will grow 6.7 percent in North America in 2013, and rise at a compound annual growth rate of 8.2 percent between 2013 and 2017. Overall, spending on online channels (including traditional online banking services and mobile-browser-based banking services) is also set to grow 6.2 percent in 2013.

Ovum also predicts that credit risk management and data privacy will become key regulatory compliance drivers of IT spending in 2013, with global investment into management information systems predicted to reach $6.4 billion globally over the course of the year, and $2.3 billion of spending in North America alone. This accounts for 5.1 percent of overall IT spending by North American banks, the firm said.

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