IDC Financial Insights: Europe, Middle East and Africa Financial Services Platforms and Technologies

The continued transformation of the European banking sector brings new operational and technological challenges, opportunities, and threats. In Europe, financial institutions are challenged by regulatory constraints (e.g., in terms of data privacy, business continuity, and security) that can limit the adoption of emerging technologies for reasons that do not exist in other industries or among industry peers in the rest of the world. European banks' focus on operational efficiency is now forcing institutions to deliver better customer experiences and to develop new business models and operating models that foster innovation. Regulation led to massive changes in the industry and challenged financial institutions on multiple fronts — from more work, more competition, and more security and transparency to sometimes ambiguous messaging. Some of these regulations will have a far-reaching impact on banks' business models and operating environments and will serve as a testing ground. The open banking era will push banks to become more relevant, contextual, and dynamic in reacting to customers, at the risk of disintermediation from the customer relationship. The IDC Financial Insights: Europe, Middle East and Africa Financial Services Platforms and Technologies Furthermore, it focuses on the evolution and implementation of new technologies (e.g., blockchain, cognitive computing and machine learning, and cloud).

The research agenda follows banking opportunities from customer and vendor perspectives, giving senior-level decision-makers timely market insight into the business opportunities in this dynamic part of the world. Our advisory service provides ongoing research reports, analyst access, and admission to content-rich conferences, podcasts, and webinars.

Throughout the year, this service will address the following topics:

• Changing trends in customer-centric strategies for consumer banking, credit, investment, and corporate banking
• New trends in risk and regulatory compliance
• Best practices and business models for marketing, supply chains, and governance
• The evolution of mobile banking, near-field communication, prepaid cards, and other payment trends
• Self-service banking and the role of the internet and other innovative channel management schemes
• Addressing the Big Data challenge, particularly in the context of business intelligence and analytics
• Understanding how banking can best leverage the opportunities afforded by social networking
• Financial institutions' use of cloud-based services
• IT spending trends in the European banking sector

Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

1. What are the unique dynamics in European retail and corporate banking, including pan-European regulatory initiatives?
2. How are the needs of European consumers and companies changing, and what will this mean for the banks that serve them?
3. How can delivery channels be a source of added value through which high-margin relationships can be created and sustained? What makes a difference in winning a larger share of wallet from customers?
4. What are the hot trends in European banking? How can technology providers optimize their business models to capitalize on these opportunities?
5. How can financial institutions leverage innovative partnerships and net-centric collaboration with service vendors and benefit from relationships with supermarkets, telecommunications providers, or other companies?
6. What are the trends in IT product areas (i.e., hardware, software, and IT services)?
7. What are the optimal transformation strategies banks should consider?

Financial institutions and technology vendors that support them use our research to guide their internal investment decisions, help them plan for future technology needs, benchmark the competition, and stay current on solution offerings. We also offer clients an open dialog with our expert analysts to support key fintech investment strategies.