Are the clouds clearing?

Cloud models in wholesale financial services continue to get a lot of press, but fewer public references regarding value delivered, than you might expect for what many perceive as such a big game changer.
In a survey we conducted with SWIFT last year, only 3% of bank respondents stated that it would have a major impact on the securities world compared to other technology-led advances such as BPM.
Of course, many of the larger banks are embracing private cloud delivery models themselves to increase the efficiency of internal IT provisioning, much as the same way as they did with grid software some years ago.
However is the point being missed here? Cloud may have just as much relevance to a bank's clients as it has to the bank's own internal processes and IT delivery, constrained as it is by regulatory and security concerns.
Innovation surveys (Business Week etc) point to banks not being seen as the most innovative of organisations compared to other businesses, but they serve clients from multinationals to sophisticated investors who may well be striving for innovation themselves.. How many times have you heard of a bank pitch for business where cloud-based delivery, focused on their client's value chain, was an implicit part of their value proposition?

Hopefully some rays of light may shine through on this subject at SIBOS next week, see #sibos and #innotribe.