Misys has announced the results of its third annual Trends in Transaction Banking survey. From the responses of more than 120 respondents across 45 countries, the theme of reducing IT complexity and costs remain the dominant concerns of transaction bankers.
Over 77% of respondents stated that they had started consolidating at least trade finance and cash management businesses to achieve this goal. At the same time, 45% describe their infrastructure as “multiple core processing systems”, underlining that the industry has a long way to go before true consolidation happens.
Highlights of the survey include:
- Just under a half of respondents ( 43%) listed “online channel development” as the top transaction banking priority for next year, reflecting the trend towards enhancements of the online delivery of cash management and trade finance in a unified fashion.
- “Adding new products and services” remained the top strategic focus for banks managing their transaction and cash management business over the next three years, gathering 26% of respondents.
- “Simplified process for making changes to payment standard and rules across all systems” was listed by 35% as their top priority.
- Of those surveyed, 34% listed “increasing IT and system complexity” as the major challenge facing their bank’s transaction banking group, followed closely by 33% who see “Increasing regulation” as the major challenge.
- Demands from corporates to be able to check payment flows manifested in 25% of those surveyed stating “real-time payment tracking” was their top priority in payments.
- “Trade services functionality” narrowly beat “cash flow forecasting tools” in the priority list with 14% and 13%, respectively, confirming the prominent status and importance of trade finance in a bank’s service offering today.
- Almost half those surveyed, 45%, describe their infrastructure as “multiple core processing systems”, echoing well the growing interest in payment hubs to help banks centralise and streamline their payment processes.