62 per cent financial services leaders expect Cloud to boost sales: Report

Nearly 62 per cent of financial services leaders expect their Cloud investments to increase revenue over the next two years, a new Capco-Wipro report said on Tuesday.

Financial services leaders cite increased future revenues (62 per cent) and improved future profitability (52 per cent) as leading reasons to deploy cloud technologies, according to a new financial services study by Capco, a Wipro company.

"We believe financial services firms often do not consider the total cost benefits when measuring return on investment (ROI) on the cloud. Only 40 per cent cited benefits arising from decreased non-IT costs, and even fewer measure reduced carbon footprint, accelerated time to market, or improved productivity," said Peter Kennedy, Partner & Cloud Lead at Capco.

Wipro last year acquired the UK-based Capco for $1.45 billion (Rs 10,551 crore), a management and technology firm, to provide digital, cloud and IT services to financial institutions in Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Covid has impacted the operations of financial service institutions (FSIs) by elevating the prioritisation of cloud as a means to improve customer experience.

It also enhanced recognition of the importance of cloud usage to making processes more efficient and agile and increased institutions' willingness to make cloud investments.

Banks' cloud spending averaged $36 million in 2021, rising to $41 million for capital markets firms and $55 million for insurance companies.

Currently firms run, on average, 38 per cent of their business applications through the cloud, and they anticipate that percentage will increase to 55 per cent in two years, the report noted.

"Early in the transformation process, it is crucial to develop an enterprise-wide cloud strategy and roadmap that details technology choices, governance measures and spending priorities, and that moderates other potential battlegrounds that can dilute implementation," said Kennedy.