IT Outsourcing for Banks and Insurance Companies

IT outsourcing in banking is increasingly common among financial institutions seeking to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs by transferring some or all of the bank's IT functions to a specialized IT services company.

The main advantages of outsourcing for the bank are:

• cost reduction
• risk reduction
• lower IT management complexity
• access to cutting-edge technologies held by the outsourcer
• access to specialized skills available from the partner company and not internally.

Bank outsourcing may include:

• IT infrastructure management
• software maintenance
• data management
• cybersecurity
• technical support.
• Outsourcing can be partial or total, including these or other functions and involving one or more partners, depending on the specific needs of the bank.

The main risks of IT outsourcing in banking are the loss of direct control over IT functions and sensitive customer information, and dependence on an outsourcing partner.

On this page, solutions and software are listed that offer management tools at all levels of customization for banking outsourcing, from specific procedures or individual functionalities to entire information systems for banks, credit institutions, financial companies, and institutions that prefer to outsource the management of information infrastructures and/or the management of archives and databases completely or in part.

Bank outsourcing

The Regulator has historically placed great attention on the issue of outsourcing in banking, defining guidelines on outsourcing that define, for example, which agreements with third parties are considered as banking outsourcing and specify the criteria for evaluating whether an outsourced activity, service, process or function, or part of it, is considered important or critical, with a consequent greater impact on the risk profile and internal control system of the institution.

In addition, the Bank is required to consider a number of risks related to the counterparty, including excessive dependence on the partner company, resulting in loss of control over its IT systems, and the risk of substantial IT lock-in.