SaaS Regulations and the IT Rat-Race

There is a real interest growing from buy-side firms to move away from licensing software as on-going regulatory changes hit budgets hard. Many wealth managers have said to me for years that the black hole that is the IT budget is proving a drain on business development and improved investor services.

It is ironic that many software firms often use the word solution in their marketing material as ‘the solution’ can become ‘the problem’. When does it become the problem? Answer; when compliance dictates that the system monster needs continual feeding, until it gets too big for the business to support.

It’s in this context that I keep hearing about SaaS, a new method to get financial services firms out of the IT rat-race. But will a brake be put on this promising innovation by the Regulators, instigating some new regulatory demand or insisting on some risk attribution like model A and B? (Heaven help us, no!  But I am getting worrying noises).

Join the industry experts who have studied and had hands on experience of 21st Century Outsourcing to debate and discuss the pros and cons of SaaS at the next Post-Trade Forum hosted by the London Stock Exchange on the morning of the 29th September.