Compliance with in-coming European financial rules has boosted banks' outsourcing spend by nine per cent this year.

And Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) projects will lead to on-going growth into 2008, according to research from Pierre Audoin Consultants.

Many banks will not meet the deadline for MiFID compliance on 1 November – chiefly due to lack of guidance and unrealistic timetables.

Outsourcing business is seeing increased activity in two forms. Some banks are outsourcing non-core parts of the business to allow them to focus on compliance.

And other are outsourcing areas directly linked to compliance because the bank cannot afford to invest so much time in such projects alone.

Nine investment banks have signed deals with suppliers BT and Colt to co-host
data repositories enabling them to meet trade data reporting regulations.