This year is not expected to bring any great increases in IT spending by financial institutions, indeed spending will probably stay much the same as it was in 2002. And the consensus appears to be that spending will not begin to improve significantly until next year, if then.

A recent survey of banks by Front Capital Systems has 76% of respondents saying that the banking sector has seen a slowdown in IT spending over the past 12 months. But Stephen Kimsey, lead consultant at Kimsey Consulting, says what the industry terms as a slowdown in spending is, in fact, "an across-the-board realignment of the purchasing cycle" since the turn of the millennium and the "Y2K" problem.