The poll of around 45 executives shows that banks accept the potential to save money associated with cloud computing, with nearly half of survey respondents seeing the technology as a means to cut infrastructure costs and over a third saying it would give more cost flexibility.

Yet only 15% of respondents are currently tapping the technology with a third admitting they simply don't know enough about the potential risks and 44% citing the lack of data security as a significant barrier to adoption.

Koen Van den Brande, group strategy and marketing director, Temenos, says: "We recognise that cloud computing is an important emerging trend and wanted to gauge customer opinion. In their responses, banks appear to remain sceptical today. This is an interesting finding and is broadly in line with other reports on the cloud computing subject."

The Temenos survey contrasts with a more upbeat poll on cloud computing from IBM earlier this year which suggested the recession has spurred Wall street firms to investigate the use of the technology in a bid to overcome budgetary restrictions and skills shortages.

The survey of over 350 Wall Street IT professionals found 46% of respondents predicting that cloud computing will force significant business change, up from 21% in 2008. This makes it the top disruptive technology in the eyes of respondents, ahead of even operational risk modeling and mobile technologies.