US bank JPMorgan has bucked the belt-tightening trend by using the Sibos conference to announce a $1bn investment in its treasury services business.
The investment, which started at the beginning of 2008, will be spread over three years and will be used to finance the migration of all of its international customers onto a newly developed single, global platform covering accounts, payments, billing, information reporting and other such services.
"We are continuing to build on our international expansion and our commitment to further globalising our service," says Sue Webb, global head, core cash management, JP Morgan Treasury Services.
"We are putting money into our infrastructure to make it easier for our international customers to use the service," says Webb, emphasising that the migration process will be "seamless" for its corporate clients.
JP Morgan has already been ploughing some of the cash into the build-out of a new network for Asian markets, with the move to the global, integrated platform scheduled for 2009.
Explaining the timing of the announcement, Webb explained that Sibos was an event that brought all of its international banks together.
Rival banks have however been quick to counter JP Morgan's news, with Deutsche Bank stating that the $1bn figure could be deemed "unimpressive" depending on how the investment is structured and that it is further along the road in the development of its transaction services.
"At Deutsche Bank we have already gone through that investment over the last five years," says Daniel Marovitz, head of product management, global transaction banking, Deutsche Bank. "We have a global messaging structure for high-value payments through our money transfer new architecture service.
"Congratulations to JP Morgan for doing the research and development but we are already on the road."
A spokesman for Citi, meanwhile, explains that its global transaction services unit, which combines treasury, trade, securities and funds services, spends $1bn on technology on an annual basis.
Research conducted by Finextra among 100 product management and director level bankers, found a clear trend towards the consolidation of business lines into a single global transactions banking group, but that the process was hindered by IT complexity and the heavy spending required to keep pace with the top global banks.
The report is available from the Misys stand at Sibos in Vienna, from 15-19 September, and also available for download on Finextra.com: The future of transaction banking