Datamonitor predicts that investment by European retail banks on wealth management technology will grow from US$244m in 2002 to US$362m by 2005, with much of the investment focused on branch-based advisory services.
The report, "Wealth Management Technology in Europe: Phoenix from the ashes", predicts that European retail banks' technology spend on wealth-related projects will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14% over the next three years.
The spending spotlight will be on the branch desktop, says the analyst group, as state-of-the art portfolio management tools, analytics and financial planning software become essential to achieving accurate customer profiling, profitability analysis and advice-based solutions.
Sian Jones, financial services technology analyst at Datamonitor, says the major universal banks need to re-position their branches for the delivery of advice-based solutions if they are to capture market share.
"Some major investment is needed here if universal banks are ever going to compete effectively against independent financial advisors (IFAs) and life and pensions players for a share of the wealth pie," she states.