Banks are increasing tech spend overall in 2025 with a focus on security and fraud improvements, data analytics, AI and continuing to move applications to the cloud: American Banker study Banks plan to make significant increases to their tech spending in 2025, according to research released this month by American Banker. Top priorities include security and fraud improvements, data analytics, AI and continuing to move applications to the cloud. 57% said these new tools will have the most impact on the banking industry over the next few years. More than 80% of respondents planned to increase their investments in technology next year, according to American Banker’s research, and nearly all plan to at least maintain their current level of investment. There are a wide variety of areas banks will be putting tech resources into next year, including digital payments, mobile apps, core banking system upgrades and cloud-based services. Enhanced security and fraud mitigation combined were the top tech spend priority for banks, coming in at 56% in surveyed responses. The second-highest priority was data and analytics at 53%, followed by AI and machine learning at 40% and automation tools at 39%. AI is seen as a critical tool in mitigating fraud and money laundering, according to American Banker survey respondents, but AI adoption is being held back by budget challenges (46%), difficulty with implementation (41%), model governance issues (39%) and time to implementation (38%). American Banker’s research indicated that credit unions and community banks are the most sensitive to budgetary concerns regarding AI implementation. Large banks are the most concerned about governing their models properly, and regional banks are most worried about the difficulty of implementation. Markham said that among Capco’s clients, budgetary concerns have been less of an issue when incorporating AI than internal risk and control functions. Increasing spending on data and analytics systems is the foundation of incorporating successful AI models into banking systems, according to Markham. Even for smaller community banks that aren’t yet investing in AI, improving their data analytics provides benefits to current operations. Cloud-based architecture was a top tech spend priority for 33% of survey respondents, and some banks are turning to third-party fintechs to deploy cloud-based digital banking systems

January 31, 2025 //  by Finnovate