Analyzing - and - Justifying Your Bank's Technology Spending

Roche, Terence, American Banker

How should the chief executive of a community bank analyze and justify technology spending? This question has become more pressing in recent years.

Technology expenditures are increasing at three times the rate of inflation, and in many banks represent the largest noninterest expense after human resources. Boards of directors are asking more questions about technology, wanting to know what investment s are being made and why.

However, even with the growth in technology spending and the visibility technology has in most banks today, defining, tracking, and understanding total technology spending is very difficult in most community banks across the country.

There are many reasons, of course, but here are some of the main ones:

* There is no uniform definition of "technology spending."

Almost any two banks could agree on what constitutes personnel expenses, but you would not find the same concurrence with technology spending. A …

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Publication information: Article title: Analyzing - and - Justifying Your Bank's Technology Spending. Contributors: Roche, Terence - Author. Magazine title: American Banker. Volume: 161. Issue: 211 Publication date: November 1, 1996. Page number: 14+. © 2009 SourceMedia, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1996 Gale Group.

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