70% of European-based insurers are planning to increase their IT spending on infrastructure in 2003, according to a report from Datamonitor.
The survey, "IT Strategy in Financial Services - European FSI Perspectives", found that 34% of insurers rank it as their number one priority for IT investment.
The survey found that core IT systems are the second most popular area of growth, with 47% increasing investment. Insurers are also set to focus more closely on desktop standardization - the software packages used by a company's employees.
Datamonitor's Sian Jones said: "Infrastructure rationalisation in financial services companies is seen very much as low hanging fruit.
"There are huge amounts of duplication at all levels of the organisation, meaning that there are major opportunities to create economies of scale through standardisation and rationalisation initiatives."
