The Global Financial Markets Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers ("PwC") identified key trends in capital markets investment bank technology and innovations for the next five years. The authors found that investment banks continue to be confronted with operating environmental challenges that include:

  • increasing regulatory obligations;
  • "ongoing pressure on returns";
  • the cost of maintaining complex and "legacy technology platforms";
  • the emergence of new technologies;
  • changing client expectations; and
  • increasing competition for talent.

SIFMA member banks and subject matter experts from PwC projected that:

  • technology is one of the "most powerful levers" that banks have to deal with current industry challenges;
  • data and analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology have the ability to transform banks and the industry; and
  • new technologies and a focus on innovation will obligate the "banks of the future" to be automated, "data-led, open and agile."

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