Capital spending on information technology by the banking sector in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will reach a total of about $400 million by end 2003, according to estimates by Madar Research. This spending is driven by a thrust in acquiring new computer systems and expanding infrastructure.
Madar Research estimates total IT spending (operational and capital) by GCC banks at close to $1 billion in 2003, which is substantial in comparison with IT spending levels in developing countries.
“The banking sector in the GCC is fairly aggressive in adopting information technology, compared to the rest of the world,” said Abdul Kader Kamli, research director and president of the Dubai Media City-based Madar Research.
“Despite a very strong drive shown by some GCC banks to acquire the latest banking technologies, the sector in general has not yet matured to the levels prevalent in the industrialized world. This is evident, for instance, by high rates of capital spending compared to world average spend, which indicates a strong move to implement new IT systems.”
Such were the findings of a study aimed at determining how aggressive the region’s banks are in their technology adoption as compared to the world average. The study, which appeared in the “Madar Research Journal,” involved a survey of 30 GCC-based banks, and benchmarked the region’s banks against a range of global industry parameters. These included IT budget as a percentage of revenue, IT budget per employee, the ratio of IT users per IT employee, and IT budget per IT employee.
