HSBC's group chief technology officer, Ken Harvey, has led a bank-wide project to create a single, centralised IT services hub that is expected to achieve major cost savings. The project underpins the bank's broader One HSBC business re-engineering programme.

The market for core banking systems is booming, spurred on by institutions looking to provide better services and products in an increasingly competitive environment. But methods of achieving these goals vary by region and institution. Writer John Beck

Much work has been done to standardise and automate fund processing, with several commercial solutions available, but the cost of processing fund transactions is still significantly higher than for bonds or equities and this is hampering critical mass. Is a more centralised market infrastructure needed to tackle processing costs? Writer Frances Maguire

Moving to a new, highly targeted direct marketing model has given a dramatic boost to the profitability of Ceská sporitelna's marketing campaigns, as the bank's deputy chief executive, Jirí Škorvaga, explains. Writer Michelle Price

Santander's acquisition spree has left the bank with a major IT challenge. But as José María Fuster, its CIO, explains, the bank has embraced IT integration as an all-encompassing transformation programme. Writer Wendy Atkins

Banks have so far been wary of adopting remote cloud-computing services, often because of security concerns. However, cloud operators are posing a threat to existing companies across a spectrum of businesses, and banks cannot afford to ignore the public cloud for long. Writer Phil Jones

Likhit Wagle, IBM's global leader for banking and financial markets

Banks will be forced to make profound changes to their business strategies- and their technology - to prop up their return on equity. However, messy and conflicting legacy IT systems have developed into a 'hairball' that threatens to choke banks' efforts to streamline. Writer Phil Jones