Analyst Datamonitor predicts that overall spend on business intelligence and analytics will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 7% between 2002 and 2006, driven by a boom in anti money-laundering initiatives.

The study - Business intelligence and analytics in European Financial services - predicts that, for compliance and risk management technologies combined, investment will amount to $1.7bn in 2006. Investment in business intelligence and analytics will hit $4.8bn by 2006, it said.

Spend on fraud detection technologies are expected to experience a CAGR of 7.5% over the next three years, reaching $420m in 2006.

Daniel Lessner, Datamonitor financial services technology analyst said in a statement: 'The business intelligence and analytics industry, as most of the IT space, has seen some slower years recently.

'The financial services sector - traditionally the largest market for business intelligence and analytics - is going to play a pivotal part in fuelling this recovery in the coming years as banks and insurance companies are pressed to satisfy regulatory requirements and meet pressure from shareholders to provide a more complete picture of risk exposure, compliance and profitability.'