Banks’ change of focus from product orientation to customer orientation is bringing benefits, not least in being able to understand a customer’s value and market the right products. And that is where new technology can help, Dan Barnes reports.

IT is transforming trading and pushing up processing speeds and volumes. The winners will be those who keep up, says Dan Barnes.

Keeping trading speeds at the required levels challenges current data centre technology – where there is a failure, continuity must be assured. Tim Furmidge looks at solutions.

Now speed is king on the trading floor, banks must optimise their systems’ engineering – or find themselves left behind. Dan Barnes reports.

It is often said that the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) is a question of debit, not credit. But TowerGroup estimates that no more than 5% of all EU debit card payments in 2005 will be outside the country of issue.

Banks have taken automation to the extreme in their bid to cut costs. Now when their customers’ problems don’t correlate to the prescribed formulae, the system breaks down – as Chris Skinner discovered recently.

Thorough planning and active IT management are behind the smooth running of ABN AMRO’s latest outsourcing deal, chief information officer Lars Gustavsson tells Dan Barnes.

Badly merged banks are often in danger of going off the rails when service channels continue to work independently. Can SOA keep them on track? Wendy Atkins investigates.

A mergers and acquisitions situation is an ideal one for SOA. Bhuvan Satwah explores these possibilities and outlines some of the benefits.

The future of trading in the wake of regulations such as the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) means more trade reporting – and that means more data. Patrick Burton looks at how IT departments at investment firms are going to cope.