The biggest barrier to UK financial institutions developing new digital products, services and operations is regulatory compliance risk, according to a study from FIS.
FIS, a developer of financial software, has created the global Readiness Report which compiles the thoughts of 2,000 C-level and senior executives across buy-side and sell-side, insurance firms and retail banking enterprises, from around the world.
While the consensus in the UK was compliance risk held back innovation, in the US, respondents stated complex legacy IT systems and cybersecurity risk was most troubling.
According to the report, the UK institutions are falling behind global leaders in adopting open technology. Of the UK respondents, 53 per cent stated they were wary of adopting APIs due to concerns on opening their data and functionalities. Other reasons were for wanting to see industry standards.
Cloud technology is increasing in popularity across the UK, with 38.5 per cent of its respondents stating they were in the process or have already migrated some of their mission-critical infrastructure to the cloud. The UK’s appetite for the technology stack is greater than most countries, with only 32.4 per cent of US respondents having made this progress and 22.5 per cent global institutions had made the move.
AI technology is another keen area of interest for UK firms, but mainly for improving basic tasks. Of responses, 46 per cent focused on leveraging it to automate simple processes while only 26.4 per cent are using it for value-add services like personalise advice.
FIS head of capital markets Martin Boyd said, “Overall, the UK institutions are well-developed in their digital strategies but there is still significant work to be done to modernise systems and adopt new technology to retain their competitive edge.
“Financial services leaders are charting a path to future success by aligning technology, operations and talent to support new business models.”
FIS is a financial software builder, helping firms integrate banking, payments, wealth management, risk and compliance, and insurance solutions.
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