2012 "Bankers as Buyers" Now Available for Download

North American FinTech Spending Projected to be $53 billion. End Quote

Atlanta, GA (1888PressRelease) January 19, 2012 - William Mills Agency, the nation's largest independent financial PR and technology public relations firm, today released its annual financial services industry research survey, "Bankers as Buyers." The ninth annual survey includes commentary and contributions from leading industry analysts, banker consultants and financial technologists. The survey is available for free download at: http://ow.ly/8q6sj

Some of the insights are provided by: Aite Group; CCG Catalyst Consulting Group; Celent, Cornerstone Advisors, Crone Consulting, LLC; IDC Financial Insights, Javelin Strategy & Research; Novarica; Sawyers & Jacobs, LLC; Speer & Associates and ToweGroup.

This year's survey found that while financial institutions continue to invest in emerging technologies, the majority of this year's spending is projected to be in support of existing platforms and established services.

"There are a few themes that seem to consistently weave their way into the industry discussion today," said Scott Mills, APR, president of William Mills Agency. "Channel shift, or the moving of investment resources from one channel to another, is more prevalent among financial institutions of all sizes this year. Disintermediation, while not new, is becoming more prominent. We are hearing more about non-traditional players such as Paypal, Square, prepaid cards, and cash advance companies, making in-roads to traditional banking relationships. Financial institutions are looking for ways to enhance the overall customer experience, as well as engage the customer to establish more meaningful interactions."

Some key findings of this year's "Bankers as Buyers" survey include:
· A total of 14,757 financial institutions make up today's depository landscape.
· High mortgage delinquency rates, the Dodd-Frank Act and falling loan demand from qualified borrowers continue to plaque financial institutions.
· Financial institution closures have slowed significantly. Only 90 banks were taken over by the government by the end of November 2010, compared to more than 150 shuttered the previous year and the 140 that were seized in 2009. As a result, earnings have improved on an industry-wide basis.
· Large banks account for 82.9 percent of the North American spend on technology.
· The industry is seeing a large channel shift or movement of investment and resources from one channel to another.
· Mobile banking is the most buzzworthy in terms of financial technology. It has created benefits for many of the financial institutions that have already implemented it and promises to further increase revenue through mobile payments and decrease expenses through mobile capture.
· Consumer mobile banking adoption jumped from 19 percent to 30 percent in 2011 due to continuing financial institution implementation and growth in consumer smart phone ownership.
· Compliance technology spending continues to be significant due to regulators' demand for better analytics and more frequent reporting,
· Financial institutions are projected to increase security spending slightly over each of the next several years.
· Social media is becoming an essential, low-cost way of acquiring and retaining customers, though many financial institutions are still determining how to use social media to accomplish those goals.
· Financial institutions will add technologies to help transition the branch to provide better sales and relationship marketing capabilities.
· Financial institutions continue to lag behind other industries when it comes to cloud computing.
· A few financial institutions are starting to use telepresence to enable customers to consult with centralized experts for mortgages, retirement planning and other services.

"North American financial institution technology spending will increase by just under two percent in 2012, to about $53 billion," said Jeanne Capachin, research vice president, corporate treasury and spending guides for IDC Financial Insights. "Elevated unemployment levels nationally, weak mortgage demand and uncertainty over some of the implications of Dodd-Frank and other regulations has financial institutions being very conservative about their technology spending plans for 2012."

About William Mills Agency
William Mills Agency was founded in 1977 and promotes companies that sell a variety of products or services in a number of highly specialized vertical markets with a focus in the financial industry. The Atlanta-based agency represents companies throughout North America and Europe. For more information, please visit www.williammills.com or call Mr. Kelly Williams at (678) 781-7202.

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