The level of IT improvements seen in the banking sector over the past four years has been minimal, the UK's technology trade body has said.
Intellect says that decades of underinvestment have left computer systems in financial institutions severely lacking.
“Within individual banks, poor infrastructure does not afford a timely and accurate view of ‘the whole’ of their operations," the Sunday Telegraph reports the body as saying.
“In effect, they do not know their own business well enough. Therefore it is impossible for the regulatory authorities to build a macro view of ‘the whole’ of the financial system”.
The comments come just a few weeks after a meltdown of systems run by the Royal Bank of Scotland left thousands of people unable to access their money.
Last week, an unnamed source told the Financial Times that financial institutions will have to upgrade their systems en masse if they are to keep on the right side of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), a move which could provide significant opportunities to IT contractors.
