Lack of tech innovation could mean muted recruitment in 2010

Bad news for IT in finance professionals hoping for a raft of new job opportunities from fresh projects in 2010 - banks' technology budgets are likely to be taken up by regulatory pressures, and programme innovation could be muted.

At least this is the projection from IT research firm Gartner, which is suggesting that half of banks in the UK will lack a budget for innovation by 2013.

Richard De Lotto, principal research analyst at Gartner, suggests that pressure from governments, regulators and consumers is making some banks risk-averse in terms of rolling out ambitious IT projects.

"The predominant view of IT is that it is only useful for cutting costs so tactical thinking about automation and rationalisation overwhelms longer-term decision and strategic plans and goals," he says.

Gartner's views that innovation will be on the back burner this year, echo 2010 projections from Bank Systems & Technology. However, it suggests that the current lack of regulatory clarity means that IT budgets are currently in flux.

The bulk of banks' technology investments will be spent on keeping systems ticking over, suggests Jacob Jegher, senior analyst at Celent.

"About three-quarters of the total IT budget is dedicated to maintenance, he says. "As such, there is only so much fat that can be trimmed."