Banking technology in a bold climate (the demand for new technology to cope with the demands of the financial institutions of China)

Article Type: Abstracts From: Strategic Direction, Volume 27, Issue 2

Beck J.The Banker, September 2010, Vol. 160 No. 1016, Start page:118, No. of pages: 4

Describes how China’s financial institutions, having emerged quite well from the global financial crisis and recession, now face their biggest challenge in assimilating the new technology solutions demanded by the rapidly changing banking landscape, from catering for the disparate demands posed by China’s vast geographical and economic diversity, to focusing on long-neglected areas such as risk and operations, and constructing massive and lengthy IT strategies. Suggests that such challenges include ensuring that IT keeps pace with the development of the business as a whole, and identifies a number of specific issues faced by technology heads at Chinese financial institutions, one of the greatest, being the sheer size of the wide-ranging domestic market. Reveals a clear ambition on the part of Chinese banks to overcome these problems, as demonstrated by the future IT plans of some of IBM’s clients in the region,where demand for fresh IT infrastructure is coming from an unparalleled array of institutions, ranging from the so-called “big four” state-owned commercial banks to a number of joint stock commercial banks, more than 100 city commercial banks, many more tiny rural credit co-operatives and, now, a number of foreign subsidiaries. Concludes that, wherever the banks get their IT systems from, they are likely to play an increasingly important role in both everyday operations and revenue generation.Article type: ViewpointISSN:0005-5395Reference: 39AY013

Keywords: Banks, China, Communications technology