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Figure 2.2<br />

No. of banking employees<br />

50 000<br />

CBA WPAC ANZ NAB<br />

Employee Numbers<br />

45 000<br />

40 000<br />

35 000<br />

30 000<br />

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998<br />

Source: ETC.<br />

2.4 New costs and intermediaries<br />

In order to obtain the cost savings offered by the Internet, the banking<br />

and finance sector is buying significant volumes of IT inputs.<br />

Figure 2.3<br />

Trends in major bank expenditure on IT<br />

$ Million<br />

400<br />

350<br />

300<br />

250<br />

200<br />

150<br />

100<br />

50<br />

CBA WPAC ANZ NAB<br />

0<br />

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998<br />

Source: Banking Annual Reports.<br />

It seems likely that the major banks have raised their IT spending to<br />

accommodate a major upgrade of e-commerce requirements. It is not<br />

clear if they intend to raise spending above these levels or merely to<br />

sustain them, or indeed, if the new capital expenditure round is<br />

now complete.<br />

In order to compete in the Internet market, banks and other financial<br />

sector firms must ensure that consumers are aware of their presence in<br />

this new context. The financial sector is the biggest spender on Internet<br />

advertising in Australia, nearly a quarter of the total spent coming from<br />

the sector. Five of the top-ten online advertisers in 1998 were from the<br />

financial services industry. 7<br />

7 Margaret Banaghan ‘Inside Story – Part two: Cyber retail case studies’, Business Review Weekly, Friday<br />

30 July 1999.<br />

95

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