January 19, 2012 - U.S. regulators said on Wednesday they believe their agencies could implement a ban on proprietary trading without crushing banks' ability to buy and sell securities on behalf of customers, and one official said he was seeking ways that banks could reduce costs of complying with the rule.

January 19, 2012 - IDC Government Insights announced the availability of a new report, Best Practices: Regional Community Cloud Hubs – The New "Trickle Down" Effect That's Boosting State and Local Computing (Document #GI232470). According to the new report, IDC Government Insights believes a new type of government cloud services, labeled "regional cloud hubs", will significantly change the way state and local governments procure online computing services.

January 19, 2012 - Total bank IT spending across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific will grow to US$173.3 billion in 2012. This spending level is approximately 2.8% higher than 2011. This is a discouraging but not surprising indicator that IT spending growth is slightly on the decline. In a new report, IT Spending in Banking: A Global Perspective, Celent analyzes IT spending trends across different regions: North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The report compares and contrasts the direction of IT spending trends.

January 17, 2012 - International regulatory authorities have called for the urgent creation of a universal Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) in their final report on the OTC derivatives data that should be collected, stored and disseminated by trade repositories (TRs).

January 17, 2012 - International Data Corporation (IDC) today announced the launch of the industry's first global tracker covering the business analytics software market on a semiannual basis. The Worldwide Semiannual Business Analytics Tracker covers 12 segments within the BA (Business Analytics) market, providing semiannual vendor share information and a five-year annual forecast across a total of 49 countries.

January 13, 2012 - Despite ongoing economic turmoil, global spending on retail banking technology will increase by $3.6 billion - 3.2% - in 2012, and will hit $135 billion over the next five years, according to analyst house Ovum.

January 12, 2012 - A legal challenge to the payment card industry's PCI security standards is brewing in the US, as a Utah-based restaurant chain cries foul over the apparently "arbitrary" nature of the system and the level of fines imposed by Visa and MasterCard following an alleged breach of security.