Kenya ups financial software spend

Kenyan banks are increasingly spending more on financial software, in line with a shift in their business delivery modes, says Business Daily Africa.

According to industry analysts, every month, software contracts worth over a billion shillings are being signed by both local and international financial institutions located in the country.

"Software providers have seen a rapid upswing in the numbers of banks seeking software solutions in the past few years. Contracts are getting bigger, and solutions more comprehensive," said Benedict Njuwa, regional sales manager at Fintech, a software firm that supplies banks.

China's banks have reduced fraud and other irregularities by 63% from a year earlier in the first half, as they tightened internal controls and improved risk management after public share sales, says Bloomberg.com.

Domestic banks uncovered 293 cases of fraud, with about 30% involving at least 1 million yuan, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a press release. Banks also reported thwarting 76 fraud attempts.

Banks in Asia's second-biggest economy are overhauling their management and technology to cast off a legacy of bad debt caused by decades of state-directed lending. Until the free-market policy changes of the 1990s, local Communist Party committees approved the appointment of branch managers, loan oversight was lax and fraud flourished.

With almost half of the available exhibition space snapped up within three weeks of launch, The Banking Technology Event in the UK is off to flying start, according to NAMC Newswire.

This year's exhibition space has expanded by almost 30%, which is on top of the 25% growth recorded in 2007.

The robust growth of the event comes on the back of the burgeoning demand for financial technology across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region. During 2007-2008, banks and financial institutions in the MEASA region are expected to spend close to $6 billion on IT, with GCC banks accounting for almost 25% of this expenditure.