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A growing number of banks surveyed by FIS plan to increase spending on technology next year, as efforts accelerate to upgrade trade finance platforms and incorporate artificial intelligence. 

Financial technology giant FIS says just over half of 200 banks quizzed expect their technology budget to increase over the next year, with improving operational efficiency and customer experience cited as the two top priorities for trade finance platform improvements. 

That figure is up from 41% in each of the previous two years’ surveys carried out by Demica, which was acquired by FIS in February this year, and marks a return to pandemic-era optimism about technology spending. 

The survey also finds that 45% of banks are using artificial intelligence or machine learning technology in live client transactions in 2025, up from around a third last year. 

“From this research it’s clear that inflexible and inefficient systems are no longer meeting clients’ needs,” says Matt Wreford, chief executive of FIS Supply Chain Finance, formerly Demica. 

The company adds that the findings reflect “a broader push toward digital transformation as financial institutions seek to modernise ageing systems”. 

Two years ago, just 38% of respondents offered a trade finance platform that had been introduced within the previous five years. That figure has risen to 43% this year and is expected to grow to 60% in 2025, FIS reports. 

In 2023, nearly half of respondents said their trade finance platform was over a decade old. That has now dropped to around a third, and in 2025, is forecast to shrink to less than 18%. 

The survey also reports that payables finance has overtaken receivables discounting as the fastest-growing supply chain finance product. 

The finding marks a return to longer-term trends after a reversal in last year’s survey, when banks reported that demand for payables had fallen.  

More respondents last year identified receivables as having higher growth potential than payables, at the time attributed in part to “a maturing of the market”. This year’s survey says the return of payables growth reflects “evolving corporate needs”. 

For the first time, a majority of survey respondents expect geopolitical risk to affect their business negatively during the following year. 

Research by the World Economic Forum published in January found war, extreme weather and geopolitical tension are expected to be the top three risks to businesses in 2025.  

Since then, US President Donald Trump has sent shockwaves across the international trade sector through the introduction of widespread tariffs on trading partners, which has already caused short-term diversions of trade flows and longer-term uncertainty over investment. 

47% of FIS survey respondents said geopolitical risk had a negative impact on asset growth in 2024, and 54% expect such an impact in the year ahead. 

By contrast, the number of banks that believe interest rates and regulatory changes will negatively impact asset growth in 2025 has dropped by 26% and 4% respectively. 

“With geopolitical risk and interest rates having significant impacts on the market, alongside cost efficiency and security concerns influencing decision-making, investment in trade finance technology is now more crucial than ever to help banks transform the customer experience and drive growth,” Wreford says. 

Wreford adds that growing geopolitical risk is unlikely to be a short-term driver of technology spend. 

“I think that they are separate issues,” he tells GTR. “Spending plans on technology are usually driven by long term budget cycles and investment plans rather than reacting to shorter term market changes.” 

However, Wreford says that if “current market turmoil from tariffs continues, then it will reinforce and magnify the cyclical changes we are seeing”.