TowerGroup Launch European Banking & Payments Research and Advisory Service

Coverage will include European universal banking and payments, including retail and wholesale banking, securities and investments - with a focus on such issues as building a true pan-European financial market, harnessing the potential transformative power of business process outsourcing, and breaking through the challenges of cross-border acquisition and consolidation. The new research practice is led by TowerGroup veteran analyst and research leader Theodore Iacobuzio, who has been appointed vice president of European Banking & Payments. Insights on Europes Most Pressing Issues To coincide with the launch of its new European Banking & Payments service, TowerGroup is pursuing an aggressive research and advisory agenda aligned with the issues most critical to European financial services executives. Below are highlights of some of the newly-published or forthcoming reports from the European practice: - The Top European Financial Services Issues for 05 - 06: In a forthcoming report, senior analyst Ralph Silva lays out the top six issues facing European financial services institutions in 2005 to 2006. Following a year of recovery for financial services providers, Silva maps the current shift back to traditional banking values of relationship building and customer focus. His report analyses a range of top trends, including the industrys focus on CRM, outsourcing, operational risk management, cross-border consolidation, and multi-channel delivery strategies. - Charting the Challenges Facing SEPA: TowerGroups Silva and Chris Skinner lay out the challenges facing the realisation of a Single European Payments Area by the deadline of 2010 set by European regulators and banks. In this forthcoming report, TowerGroup notes the improbability of existing Automated Clearing Houses (ACH) being dismantled and replaced by a Pan-European ACH by 2010 - and the implications for all payments industry participants. - Building a Pan-European Securities Market: Senior analyst Dushyant Shahrawat examines another obstacle to achieving a true pan-European financial market - overcoming a fragmented clearing and settlement infrastructure. In the forthcoming TowerGroup report, Shahrawat lays out the three things required to improve a clearing/settlement process currently 10 times as long as that of the US: reform and regulatory change to amend industry structures and practices; harmonisation of rules and procedures; and a greater adherence to industry and technical standards to ensure system interoperability. - The Coming Ascendancy of BPO: In this newly published report, senior analyst Virginia Garcia explores why business process outsourcing (BPO) is gaining increasing favor among European financial services participants. The gradual ascendancy of BPO corresponds to these institutions internal efforts to make their business models and processes more agile in the face of a changing and unpredictable market. Fueled by this growing interest, TowerGroup estimates that BPO revenues of third-party providers will reach EUR13.1 billion in 2005, with a compound annual growth rate of 18% though 2008.