Many financial services institutions have literally thousands of spreadsheets in use with very little control over their use, quality, or content. The financial services industry as a whole must soon address the paradox that exists where sophisticated risk management data and analytics are entrusted to a variety of staff with a wide range of expertise, each using an unknown number of uncontrolled, ubiquitous, and important spreadsheets from which the institution makes critical business decisions. This Note should be read in conjunction with Research Note V62:05B, Spreadsheet Controls: Gaining Clarity in Technology Selection, in which a number of vendor solutions are reviewed.

Spreadsheet management and control technologies fall into two categories: applications and platforms. Each has merits for a financial services institution and should be considered, depending on the FSI's overall goals in establishing controls. Most applications augment or improve spreadsheet usage and operational performance, efficiency, accuracy, and reliability of spreadsheets for end users. As compared to applications, platform spreadsheet controls have added dimensions and scope for managing spreadsheets. This Research Note examines several vendors of spreadsheet management and control technologies and describes the key features and range of solutions available in the market.

The year 2009 saw the first open public demonstration of risks facing the financial services industry as global regulators required stress testing to a specific set of economic inputs. Standard scenarios driven by regulators are insufficient to any given firm, though. Leading FSIs are establishing or expanding their capabilities for stress testing and weaving it into the fabric of their business decision making. Global differences in stress testing requirements increase the likelihood that test results in one part of the industry will lack coordination with test results in other parts, begging the question of whether anyone has a clear view of systemic risks.

Much of the recent onslaught of prognostications about hot trends in cloud computing is hype. In this Research Note, TowerGroup nonetheless cautions that ignoring cloud computing will put financial services institutions behind the curve with regard to IT cost, speed, and functionality over the next five years. The report warns against moving mission-critical functions to cloud providers without addressing security and compliance concerns by means of sound governance. It also discusses opportunities for IT vendors to serve new markets by offering existing products as variable, on-demand services and to fill the gaps in security and regulatory compliance in today’s cloud model.

The economic recession has curtailed investment in mobile banking and payments solutions in the United States. Financial services executives sense the intrinsic value of mobile, but TowerGroup believes most will proceed cautiously as the market demand for mobile commerce continues to evolve and the technology solutions become more mature. This Research Note provides TowerGroup's insights on what lies ahead in 2010 in the consumer market for mobile banking and payments by identifying the 10 most important business drivers for the industry and defining the essential strategic responses and technology priorities.

The focus of this TowerGroup ViewPoint is NACHA's International ACH Transaction (IAT) rule. According to NACHA, IAT is the result of a convergence of several anti-money laundering requirements, including Special Recommendation VII of the US Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, EU Regulation 1781, and Canadian Regulation C-25, which require the inclusion of certain identifying information within cross-border payments. TowerGroup believes that IAT is part reaction, part overreaction to the global crime of money laundering and will cost global financial firms millions of dollars in one-time and ongoing compliance costs.

Consumer-based financial institutions will be increasingly challenged to provide the advanced technology demanded by today's and tomorrow's clients and prospects. Numerous new technologies have proven their worth, at least in customer adoption and acceptance, while many others remain questionable. The focus of this TowerGroup Research Note is to identify and assess the capabilities that can create differentiated value in financial services and are worth considering now.

Mobile banking is an increasingly important part of financial services, with consumer adoption approaching 10 million users. Its evolution will have long-lasting implications as the industry begins the transition from basic online banking functions to more cohesive solutions that incorporate mobile payments. This TowerGroup Research Note provides an overview of the mobile payments ecosystem, examines various value-added services that can increase the usefulness of mobile payments, and discusses what financial services institutions and vendors will need to do to bring robust mobile financial services to market.

Most financial services institutions respond to financial crime defensively or for regulatory compliance purposes, but leading institutions are taking a proactive approach. This TowerGroup Research Note describes how FSIs can manage the complexities of rapidly changing fraud risk with new technologies that provide a marketplace edge. Despite fatigue or disenchantment with "enterprise" projects, leading FSIs are adopting an enterprise approach to financial crimes management using new fraud management solutions integrated with enterprise-wide risk management. A bonus and primary driver for some institutions is the resulting cost savings from eliminating duplicate effort.

Traversing the rocky road to a sustainable economic recovery will require collaboration between governments, regulators, technology vendors, and most important, financial services institutions on a few bold steps. This TowerGroup Research Note analyzes the strategic business framework and proposes steps that each of these stakeholders must take in helping the global financial services industry recover from its long and obscure night of crisis and recession.