Spending on risk IT 'not a safe haven' from budget pressures
IDC report predicts growth for compliance and control IT, but warns it must deliver more demonstrable returns than ever
Although spending on IT and services related to risk and compliance will grow solidly in the coming half-decade, it will not be protected from enterprises' need to save money and drive efficiencies.
That is the conclusion of a new report from IDC, which forecasts that global spending on risk IT and services (RITS) by financial services organisations will grow to $79.2bn (£47bn) next year. By 2018 the size of the market will reach $97.3bn, predicts the analyst, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.2 per cent.
The percentage of total spending IT spending in the finance sector accounted for by RITS will stand at 17.1 per cent next year, claimed IDC. This will rise to 18.2 per cent by 2018, but the area will "not be a safe-haven from the demand for financial performance and operational efficiency", according to today's research release.
"In fact, demands today call for risk investments to contribute more to financial performance and to the efficient operation of the institution," added the market watcher.
According to IDC, top growth areas in the RITS market during the coming years will be compliance and internal controls, credit risk, and information and cyber security.
Michael Versace, global research director at IDC Financial Insights, said: "Growth in risk management investments continues to lead all functional areas in terms of dollars allocated to hardware, software, and services that run the financial markets.
"With growth continuing to increase, firms must place their risk functions squarely in the middle of IT optimisation initiatives and require them, to work across compliance, treasury, finance, operations, product and IT disciplines and towards universal data management and integration standards, system capabilities, talent and metrics that improve risk-based decision making at a line of business and enterprise level."