Michelle Price, ­technology editor of The Banker, outlines the new forces and trends shaping the Technology Awards.

Michelle Price, ­technology editor of The Banker, outlines the new forces and trends shaping the Technology Awards.

JUDGING PANEL

  Michelle Price chaired the judging panel and is the ­technology editor of The Banker.
  Parveen Bansal is a senior research ­analyst for Financial Insights. Her specialist areas include the evolution of core banking systems, payments, BPO and systems outsourcing.
  John Barr is a research director at independent analyst company The 451 Group, where he covers IT early adoption and innovation in the financial markets. John has 25 years of experience in the IT industry.
  Jonathan Etheridge is a lead IT security analyst for HSBC Holdings, following 15 years working for online bank First Direct. Prior to joining First Direct, Jonathan worked as a software engineer.
  Clive Hawkins is global head of FX and money markets ­technology for UBS Investment Bank, prior to which he served as European head of equities ­technology at UBS.
  Chris Keeling is founding partner of Acuity Risk Management, an independent risk management consultancy. Chris presently supports the group business continuity management function at Barclays Bank.
  Nick Masterson-Jones is director of IT at VocaLink, where he is in charge of all IT programmes. Previously, Nick served as deputy general manager at an investment bank in the City.
  John Meakin is group head of information security for Standard Chartered Bank. John has led IT security for Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Bank Corporation and Dresdner Bank.
  Eric Sepkes has recently retired from his post at Citi where he worked for 38 years, and where he has held several senior management roles in operations and treasury.
  Trevor LaFleche is a senior analyst for Financial Insights. Mr LaFleche’s expertise ranges from capital markets messaging to core systems transformation, as well as treasury ­systems.
  Carol Wheatcroft is a London-based analyst in TowerGroup's international business where she covers the retail banking sector in Europe. Carol has worked in Singapore and the UK as a banking industry analyst.

NOTE FROM THE CHAIR

Few industries remain so persistently devoted to the research, development, deployment and consistent improvement of technology as the global banking industry. In 2007, the industry spent some $241bn on hardware, software, IT services, internal services and telecoms. In some cases, top-tier UK banks spend more money on software development annually than the world’s leading software providers.

But expenditure is no indication of performance – quite the opposite: in an industry traditionally flush with IT spend, there is ample scope for inefficiency, wastage and, in the worst instances, outright failure, the vast majority of which can – albeit begrudgingly – be absorbed by the business. It is for this very reason that effective, innovative and sustainable IT that serves the ever-demanding needs of the business, should be both celebrated and rewarded.

This is the overriding goal of The Banker Technology Awards which this year received more than 250 submissions from both technology providers and financial services organisations, scattered across the globe.

New forces

Each year, the pressures of doing business in all areas of banking shift: the long arm of the regulator stretches ever further; globalisation continues unabated; real-life and market events disrupt; and new markets, both geographically and vertically, continue to emerge. In recognition of these forces, The Banker has this year introduced some important new categories into the mix, including Infrastructure Strategy, Business Continuity & Governance, Offshoring & Outsourcing and Enterprise-wide Information Security.

For the banking industry, each of these issues – often interlinked – have grown in prominence, as developments in the marketplace, and a catalogue of natural disasters, have begun to severely test the capacity and reliability of IT infrastructures, in particular networks and data centres. Meanwhile, the rise of a black, cyber-crime economy has challenged the integrity of banking software, pushing information security to the top of the agenda.

Elsewhere, the requirement to operate in new markets and to reach new customers through new channels has seen the rise of innovations in mobile technology, and the exploitation of online, Web 2.0 services. Here, the Online Innovation, Mobile Payments and Mobile Banking categories have acknowledged these important trends.

With each of these new themes, The Banker has tried to encourage the industry to share its experiences, and indeed triumphs, in managing the pressures that continue to bear down on the technology stack.

The highlights

In many areas – particularly on the Retail side – we were not disappointed. Innovative deployment of often established technologies, on both a small and larger scale, characterised many of the submissions in this area of the Awards, with Barclaycard OnePulse and Bankinter’s VideoCall being notable examples. Payment cards and VoIP are, after all, hardly new phenomena; but their imaginative and brave application marked them out for recognition.

Like Fiserv’s creation of MyMoney, a financial application delivered through social networking platform Facebook, both these projects underline how active the banking community continues to be in its search for new, alternative delivery platforms and channels. Particularly in the cases of Barclaycard, Bankinter and Fiserv, the move to leverage channels and established infrastructures falling outside the banks’ immediate control, was especially striking – not only for its technical accomplishment, but also for its commercial foresight.

Elsewhere, the gruelling and complex work of upgrading large-scale legacy infrastructures and overhauling outdated platforms has also been recognised – the London Stock Exchange and State Bank of India being key examples in their respective categories. Here, the judges were quick to reward persistence, painstaking attention to detail, and sheer hard work.

Remaining challenges

This is not to say, however, that there was no room for improvement. In the Wholesale & Capital Markets area, particularly surrounding the front office, submitted projects were sometimes unambitious. Areas such as structured products, portfolio management, records management and archiving, attracted few truly competitive submissions, indicating perhaps that the banking industry has yet to properly address these significant business challenges.

Nevertheless, the global scope of submissions, and improved overall quality, was pleasing to note and fascinating to read. The Banker would like to congratulate both the winning entrants and those whose efforts have been highly rated. We look forward to receiving further, excellent new submissions next year.

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