For the past several years, our Global Financial Services Industry practices have produced annual points-of-view on the "Top 10" issues of the coming year. Spending on information technology by the financial service industry was about $306 billion in 2007, reflecting a 16% CAGR over the past four years. The surge in technology deployment will obviously continue.
In the meantime, opportunities in new markets abound--particularly those in emerging markets and Asia Pacific. The Asia's banking sector has increasingly been looking at technology while foreign banks are entering into the ongoing deregulation environment. With pressures from customers to provide better services and from regulators and shareholders to perform better as an organization, technology is at the forefront of transforming banks.