AUSTIN, TX (PRWEB) January 21, 2015
Bank consulting firm Abound Resources has published the results of its annual Insights survey of bank executives for 2015. The results indicate that a very large number of CEOs are feeling a lot better about this year than they have in the near past.
After a low point in 2013 when only 28% of bank CEOs were optimistic, today 66% of CEOs feel either somewhat or very optimistic about 2015. What a difference solid earnings and a clean balance sheet make!
“That is not to say they are content. They still have serious concerns about regulatory burdens, but they are less worried about the economy and interest rates then they were last year. The growing fear for CEOs now is in fraud and information security,” said Brad Smith, bank consultant and President and CEO of Abound Resources.
While CEO’s top priority for 2015 is to grow commercial loans, they are not quite as growth focused in 2015 as they were in 2014. The survey results would seem to signal that 2015 will be a “stick to your knitting” type of year where execution remains a bigger priority than pursuing multiple bank growth strategies.
CEOs are more focused on efficiency improvement than they have been in the previous five years of this survey, and, as in previous years, their top priority for technology is to drive more efficiencies.
The bank executives in charge of IT seem to have heard their CEOs loud and clear. Those executives named their top three technology concerns as information security, fraud management and getting maximum value from existing technologies.
Those same bank executives expect an increase in technology spending with 20% expecting “much more” spending in 2015 compared to 2014, and 46% reporting “slightly more.”
While bank officers expect technology spending to increase, there is little consensus on what new or replacement technology purchases to make. Similar to 2014, there is no ‘must have’ technology this year. Instead, the top 10 planned purchases include a mixture of customer facing systems such as online account opening and mobile remote deposit capture; efficiency driving systems such as enterprise content management (ECM); fraud and compliance related systems; and significant increases in network infrastructure investments.
To get a copy of the full survey results titled Insights into 2015, please contact Shellie Perreault at info(at)aboundresources(dot)com, or download a copy of the report from Abound’s website, http://www.aboundresources.com.
About Abound Resources:
Abound Resources was founded in 1997 and is an Inc. 5000 bank consulting and software company that is focused on assisting financial institutions achieve their profitability, technology and risk management goals. Abound has helped over 500 financial institutions across the US improve profits by more than $25 million.
