Credit Suisse is to launch an online app store where investment banks can buy and share their proprietary source code.
The eCO Financial Technology marketplace is due to launch in January and will focus on the investment banking and hedge fund space, where rapidly rising costs have forced banks to look for new ways to get a return on their heavy tech spend.
eCO says it will match buyers and sellers, and provide a standard contract to expedite the procurement process. All apps loaded on the store will be quality-tested and scored for their interoperabilty and suitability for particular lines of business.
In a holding statement on the eCO Web site, the company states: "Service partners - the industry's most experienced software and services companies - provide support contracts to avoid dependencies between banks while enabling all parties to achieve the cost and quality savings of staying on a common code line."