The vast majority of financial services firms are accelerating their investment in cloud technology, suggests a recently released survey.
The report from London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), which canvassed more than 450 financial services firms, shows that 87% of surveyed firms have increased cloud spending in the past two years and no longer see the technology as a way to cut costs but also as a way to increase agility and innovation, according to LSEG.
More specifically, this spending has focused primarily on strategic outcomes such as scalability, revenue growth and AI enablement.
A similar number (82%) now operate on a multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud strategy, which suggests a "shift toward flexibility and risk diversification", according to LSEG.
But the study also shows there are some challenges, namely regulatory in nature - with firms having to adjust their cloud strategies in line with the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
“The results of our survey show that adopting cloud is no longer a technology or engineering led decision; it is a key business imperative," said Stuart Brown, group head of data & feeds, LSEG:
"Companies are increasingly driving meaningful value from cloud, improving operational resilience, and preparing for the next wave of innovation. Over the next three years, that innovation will be driven by AI and machine learning, with financial institutions increasingly using cloud to power fraud detection, risk management, data analytics and generative AI.”
A number of banks have announced major cloud deals in the last two years. LSEG has also signed some signififcant deals involving greater use of cloud technology. In April, the stock exchnage group extended its multi year cloud collaboration with AWS.