Third-quarter technology spending by US banks has justified vendors' cautious predictions of a steady recovery in demand. Reuters, Bloomberg and Thomson Financial have faced difficult markets in the past few years and, while banks benefited from last year's share price recovery, information technology spending was slow to follow. However, total IT spending is 9% up on the same period last year, according to the banks' third-quarter results.

The seven groups in the graph detail technology and communications spending as an expense without specifying how much relates to hardware, software, telecommunications or other services. However, it provides a good measure of IT spending and is closely followed by providers.