XML in Financial Services

Key Findings:

  • Financial Services role as a high-value information sector with the pressures of integrating complex, heterogeneous systems, the movement to “T+1” processing, and financial document preparation makes adoption of XML in the near term highly likely.
  • The Financial Services sector spent over $195 Billion (US) in IT in 2001, with $985 Million invested on XML technologies in 2002.
  • Expenditures on XML technologies in the Financial Services sector will grow to over $8.3 Billion by 2005.
  • Financial Services will seek to implement integration-centric XML approaches first, and content-management approaches second.
  • The industry’s focus on Straight-Through Processing and integration challenges will constrict IT budgets to XML solutions that specifically address these points.
  • Budgets will greatly expand in late 2002 and 2003 for XML-based projects
  • XML-based Content Management and Single-Source Publishing can reduce up to 75% of total publishing cost
  • The proliferation of XML-based formats for Financial transactions will cause unnecessary headaches in the short term. Consolidation around the ISO 15022 specification is expected.
  • Toolset immaturity and the impact of B2B and Web Services standards will impact Integration efforts and possibly make some XML specification efforts redundant
  • Financial Services companies should seek to implement XML and Service-Oriented Integration to simplify STP and integration projects
  • Financial Service Providers (FSPs) will need to have significant resources to invest in XML-based tools and technologies in 2002, although these needs will drop off in late 2003 as tools and technologies mature.

Table of Contents:

  • I. Report Scope
  • II. Financial Services: A Market Overview
    • 2.1 Definitions of the Financial Services Sector
    • 2.2 Financial Services Industries are Information Industries
    • 2.3 The Financial Services Sector Spends over $195 Billion in IT annually
    • 2.4 Typical Information Requirements for Financial Service Providers
  • III. Drivers for XML Adoption in Financial Services Industries
    • 3.1 Integration and Interoperability
    • 3.2 Straight-Through Processing (STP) and T+1
    • 3.3 Financial Reporting Requirements — XML Mandated by Governments?
    • 3.4 Risk Management
    • 3.5 Future-Proofing the High Rate of Technology Change
    • 3.6 Competitive Advantage
    • 3.7 Effective Distribution of Print Materials
  • IV. Solutions to Key Financial Services Industry Problems
    • 4.1 Web Services & Service-Oriented Integration (SOI)
    • 4.2 Financial Industry XML Vocabularies & Standards
    • 4.3 Single-Source Publishing
  • V. ROI for XML-based Financial Services Solutions
    • 5.1 Immediate and Significant ROI: Service-Oriented Integration
    • 5.2 Immediate and Significant ROI: Single-Source Publishing
    • 5.3 Medium-term ROI: Content Syndication
    • 5.4 Long-term ROI: Adoption of Financial XML Standards
    • 5.5 Long-term ROI and Competitive Advantage: Device Integration
  • VI. Barriers to XML Adoption and Growth Inhibitors
    • 6.1 Service-Oriented Integration Pre-Supposes Interoperability
    • 6.2 Lack of Standardized Security, Reliability, and Transaction Mechanisms
    • 6.3 External Integration Challenged Due to Lack of Control of End Points
    • 6.4 The Need to Support Multiple XML-based Specifications
    • 6.5 Impact of Web Services and B2B Vocabularies on Industry Standards
    • 6.6 Single-Source Publishing Requires Sophisticated Document Authors
    • 6.7 XML May Not be Suitable as a Long-term Archival Format
    • 6.8 Toolset Immaturity
  • VII. Market Size and Future Trends
    • 7.1 Predicted Financial Services Expenditure on XML
  • VIII. Conclusions
    • 8.1 Key Notes
    • 8.2 Decision Points
    • 8.3 Figures
    • 8.4 Tables
  • IX. Profiled Vendors
    • 9.1 Service-Oriented Integration
    • 9.2 XML Content Creation
    • 9.3 XML Content Management
    • 9.4 Single-Source Publishing
    • 9.5 XML Content Syndication
    • 9.6 XML-based Risk Management
    • 9.7 XML-based Financial Services Companies
  • A. Related Research
  • B. Supporting Resources
  • C. Trademark Notice and Statement of Opinion
  • About ZapThink, LLC

XML Standards Featured:

  • ACORD
  • FinXML
  • FIXML
  • FpML
  • IFX
  • IRML
  • ISO 15022
  • MarketsML
  • MDDL
  • MISMO
  • OFX
  • RETML
  • RIXML
  • STPML
  • SWIFTML
  • XBRL

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