Banking and investment services CIOs are increasingly convinced that their old business models and existing value propositions will not be sustainable in the future, according to a survey from Gartner.
Gartner’s 2018 CIO Agenda Survey gathered data from 3,160 CIO respondents in 98 countries and across major industries, including 354 banking and investment services CIOs.
"Digital transformation and its related technologies such as APIs are more important for banking than for other industries,” says Pete Redshaw, managing vice president at Gartner. “Banks and other banking and investment services organisations clearly recognise that the status quo is not sustainable, and they must disrupt themselves before it is done to them."
When it comes to strategic business priorities, the survey found that digital business/digital transformation is more important for banking (first priority for 26% of respondents) than for all industries (17%).
In terms of investment priorities, banking CIOs rank AI, APIs and legacy modernisation as top of their agenda, with blockchain and Internet of Things failing to make the cut.
"These priorities point to a continuing tension between two opposing forces," saysRedshaw. "On the one hand, there is a need to rapidly transform the business, while, on the other hand, there is the innate inertia that arises from a huge IT estate that supports a heavily regulated industry."
Planned additional spend on digitalisation/digital marketing is also much more prominent in the banking and investment services sector (22%) than the all-industries average (12%).
Says Redshaw: "This is an industry that recognises that a firm must become truly digital - in culture, value and technology - if it is to stand a chance of surviving and thriving."