Banking executives across the world believe the rapid rate of digital transformation in the financial services industry is distorting the capability of their IT systems, raising serious concerns about ongoing operational resilience.
The survey, conducted among 300 technology and IT executives across North America, Europe and Apac, finds that financial services firms are struggling to keep up with an unprecedented rate of digital transformation in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fully 84% of those surveyed say that their IT environment has changed more in the last 12 months than in the company’s entire lifespan, while 94% of firms agreed that digital transformation is putting stress on their IT systems, compromising real-time data analysis, and creating storage and security issues.
Tightening budgets against a difficult market backdrop and ongoing shortages of talent are only exacerbating issues.
As firms are forced to push operational resilience down the agenda, ITRS CEO Guy Warren says regulators may be forced to further delay incoming regulations on bank downtime scheduled for this March.
“The pandemic has forced digital transformation to move at warp speed in order to allow businesses to keep up with rapidly changing norms and expectations,” he says. “While there’s no doubt this shift has brought with it significant benefits, it is only now as we bunker down for a ‘Covid normal’ future that we are beginning to see the cracks.”
