Banks rush to invest in business intelligence

The spend by retail banking institutions on business intelligence (BI) IT in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, will reach £4.5bn by 2012, up from the £2.8bn in 2006, says analyst Datamonitor.

According to Datamonitor's "Business Intelligence in Retail Banking" report, the combination of compliance requirements, a competitive business environment, the sub-prime credit crunch and the need for stronger management will drive retail banks' investment in BI software.

Given the sector's growth of IT budgets devoted to BI, said Datamonitor, many suppliers from diverse backgrounds, such as reporting, analytics, data management and operations, have rushed to claim their stake by adapting their definition of BI to fit their offering.