A survey undertaken by SunGard Consulting Services has revealed concerns that the testing of day-to-day financial services systems is insufficient to protect against failure.
SunGard’s research has found that the smooth implementation of upgrades or new technology is crucial in helping ensure that financial services firms can offer new or improved products and services to their customers and retain a competitive advantage.
Failure to properly test technology, however, could result in outages and downtime that may lose the firm business and cause reputational damage.
Cost represented the single biggest challenge for survey respondents, followed by insufficient time to meet deadlines, incomplete or ambiguous requirements and insufficient resources.
For 23 percent of respondents, the cost of testing exceeded a quarter of a project’s entire budget. Nearly three in five respondents said that budget restrictions impeded the improvement of the testing process system testing often causes disruption to a firm’s day-to-day operations.
Of the regulations driving increased focus on system testing, Basel III is the most prominent—40 percent of those who saw regulations as a driver cited this international standard as boosting the need for improved system testing.
Aside from general banking requirements, local regulations were the next strongest drivers, including SEPA, FATCA and the Consumer Protection Code Institutions are relying heavily on their own staff to perform testing
Michael O’Connor, project manager for information systems and development, ACCBank, said: "Impending regulatory deadlines, such as SEPA in the European Union, present a number of challenges to firms to be in compliance.”
“Having a smoothly operating technology infrastructure is crucial to satisfy both regulators and clients. Engaging SunGard to assist us in the testing of our systems ahead of the SEPA deadline has meant that we can be confident that we will meet the needs of both on an ongoing basis.”
