Banks should invest BRL 35.5 billion in technology in 2022, says Febraban

The budget of Brazilian banks for technology should reach R$ 35.5 billion this year, 18% higher than that applied in 2021. The estimate is from the 2nd stage of the Febraban Research on Banking Technology 2022, carried out by the Brazilian Federation of Banks ( Febraban) in partnership with Deloitte and released this Wednesday (25).

The number includes expenses and investments, and was calculated based on the values ​​indicated by the banks participating in the sample. The survey included 17 institutions, representing 82% of the country’s banking assets. Topics such as cyber security, artificial intelligence and the open finance are included in budgets.

Last year, banks invested BRL 30.1 billion in technology, of which BRL 11.3 billion in investments and BRL 18.8 billion in expenses.

This year, the software budget should again account for most of the total, or 58%, with R$ 17.4 billion. It is under this heading that the tools that govern the relationship with customers (the so-called CRMs) and fronts such as the open finance.

Expenses with hardware (equipment) should account for 27% of the total, and information technology services, for 7% of the total.

“We have cutting-edge, innovative, modern, secure and accessible banking technology for our customers to pay their bills, check their finances and run their business through digital and remote means”, says the president of Febraban, Isaac Sidney. “All this is the result of robust and growing investments made by Brazilian banks over the last three decades.”

According to the director of the entity’s Innovation and Technology Committee, Rodrigo Mulinari, the numbers forecast for this year reinforce the banks’ commitment to the development of new functionalities and service channels. “Some fronts have driven this expansion, such as the implementation of Open Finance, the growing digitalization of consumers and also the modernization of the technological legacy of banks”, he says.

Still on the technology front, the research carried out in partnership with Deloitte shows that institutions invested R$ 5.7 million in cybersecurity training, up 138% compared to 2020. trained, more than triple the number registered a year earlier.

New models

The survey also reveals that 53% of banks expect to invest in structures for remote work this year, which includes equipment, software and expenses with information security and cloud storage. In all, there should be R$ 46.4 million in investments.

In the past year, banks have advanced in remote work not only in administrative areas, but also in branches. In 82% of the institutions consulted, some form of remote work for the employees of the units was adopted; 73% reduced their opening hours to the public, and 55% rotated the teams.

This year, 45% of banks expect to maintain alternative work models, from remote to hybrid. “The offer of jobs in the virtual or hybrid model has been evaluated by banks as a way to attract and retain the best talent in technology”, comments Sergio Biagini, lead partner of Financial Services Industries at Deloitte.

The Febraban survey began to be released in three phases this year. The first, released in April, dealt with the priority investments of Brazilian banks in technology this year. The third stage, which should be published in the first half of the year, will deal with banking transactions made by Brazilians in 2021.