Applications can now be built from components that can be recycled and reused. Dan Barnes reports on how banks are reducing the need to design systems from scratch.
It seems that every three letter abbreviation – or TLA – heralds the next big thing (or NBT) in information communications technology (or ICT). The latest push from technology providers’ marketing departments is service-oriented architecture (SOA).

To make the radical change from selling products to services, Jose Valino, CIO at Spanish savings bank Caixa Galicia, uses consultants wisely and co-operates with other banks on technology development. He tells Dan Barnes about bridging the gap between the business and IT departments and helping customers to understand the new systems.

The fear of pension funds falling into deficit is a very real one. With no single solution on the radar, funds need to look at all the services available to help with their structure and strategies. Dan Barnes reports.
Times are hard in the pensions fund business. The UK government launched the Pension Protection Fund earlier in the year in an attempt to ensure final salary pension funds can still pay the scheme members should the fund be in deficit.

The Royal Bank of Canada’s merging of its IT and operations departments for retail and wholesale business is already paying dividends, CIO Marty Lippert tells Dan Barnes.
Marty Lippert’s recent decision to merge IT and operations departments from the retail and investment wholesale sides together was driven by the need to execute. The overarching strategy is what Mr Lippert, CIO at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), calls the “client first initiative”.

Regulators are beginning to take an interest in the number of cases in which stock lending is being inappropriately used to influence voting. But no-one wants regulatory involvement and education could be the key, Dan Barnes reports.

HSBC has transformed its technology provision into a shared services company that sells IT to the group’s departments.The intention is to increase cost transparency and increase control over IT, Fergie Williams, head of technology services Europe,tells Dan Barnes.

In a business that is not known for generating huge profits, where providers are under pressure to keep their costs down, custodians must ensure that their outsourcing models will be profitable in the long term. Dan Barnes explains how integration spells domination.
The race is on among custody providers in Europe to develop their outsourcing offerings ahead of the expected wave of demand from investment managers. Back and middle office functions are expected to be shipped out over the next three years.

Strategic sourcing and procurement systems are paying off in terms of cost reduction and also in terms of good governance, which is essential for IT departments to avoid a repeat of the technology failures of the past, says Dan Barnes.

Dan Barnes looks at how barriers can be lifted to creating and implementing a single European protocol for clearing and settlement and why it will be invaluable in cutting costs and reducing risk.

Technology now provides cheap methods of converting to straight-through processing, so cost should no longer be a hurdle for the small transfer agents that Euroclear is trying to convert. Dan Barnes reports.