Money laundering to fuel $4.8bn bank IT bonanza

Fraud and money laundering regulations and the Basel II accord will drive $4.8bn of investment in new technology by European banks by 2006, according to new research.

A report, Business Intelligence and analytics in European financial services, by analyst Datamonitor says risk management and compliance projects will be responsible for a compound annual growth rate of almost seven per cent between now and 2006 in the risk management and compliance area.

A big chunk of IT investment will go on the Basel capital accord, known as Basel II, which will require banks to implement a range of new processes for managing credit and operational risk by 2006. Business intelligence and analytics software will be key in enabling banks to gain a consolidated view of data stored in different departments across the organisation, according to the report.

Anti-money laundering guidelines from regulators such as the UK's Financial Services Authority will also push financial institutions to spend on automated artificial intelligence and analytics mechanisms to detect and prevent fraud, with investment in this area alone predicted to reach $420m by 2006.

Aside from traditional business intelligence vendors, Datamonitor says data management, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management companies are set to cash in.

Daniel Lessner, financial services technology analyst at Datamonitor, said in a statement: "The business intelligence and analytics industry, as most of the IT space, has seen some slower years recently. The financial services sector - traditionally the largest market for business intelligence and analytics - is going to play a pivotal part in fuelling this recovery in the coming years as banks and insurance companies are pressed to satisfy regulatory requirements and meet pressure from shareholders to provide a more complete picture of risk exposure, compliance and profitability."