Capital spending on IT by the banking sector in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will reach a total of approximately $400 million by the end of 2003, according to estimates by Madar Research .
Forecasts total IT spending by GCC banks in 2003 at close to one billion dollars, which is substantial in comparison with IT spending levels in developing countries. This pay out is driven by a thrust in acquiring new computer systems and expanding infrastructure.
“The banking sector in the GCC is fairly aggressive in adopting information technology, compared to the rest of the world,” said research director and president of Madar Research, Abdul Kader Kamli. “Despite a very strong drive shown by some GCC banks to acquire the latest banking technologies, the sector in general has not yet matured to the levels prevalent in the industrialized world. This is evident, for instance, by high rates of capital spending compared to world average spend, which indicates a strong move to implement new IT systems,” added Kamli.
The study, which involved a survey of 30 GCC-based banks, benchmarked the region's financial institutions against a range of global industry parameters. These included IT budget as a percentage of revenue, IT budget per employee, the ratio of IT users per IT employee, and IT budget per IT employee. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
