European banks are teeming with legacy platforms- inflexible, expensive, long time-to-market and ageing skilled workforce. Providers and package vendors who propose to change this are stuck given the budget situation. Is it time for a "return your old
car and get a discount on a shiny new one" scheme? Here is the vicious circle: bank needs to survive -> cost cuts and budget restrictions -> compliance-related expenses are prioritized -> legacy transformation decision is postponed -> bank continues to do
worse with its legacy platform. Meantime the provider / package vendor has spent several months - maybe a couple of years or more - on several rounds of presentations, workshops and RFIs with no results/revenues to show. They have come up with a hosted / ASP
version so that takes care of getting in some small and medium logos, but the big bucks are still missing. For either to be around in a year from now, Banks and providers need to talk! We are talking serious money, and it can't be all coming from banks trying
to drag themselves out of the recession, while package vendors sit pretty on license and AMC revenues. If the "old car" is worth nothing, the new car got to come on equal installments, based on results, or on new customers or number of transactions. High time
for vendors to put their skin-in-the-game and dominate, instead of wait for that budget that ain't coming anytime soon!