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Financial businesses in the UK are increasingly prepared to spend more money on IT products and services, according to a new report.

The document - Business Trends: Financial Markets - Technology trends for financial services institutions - found that UK businesses - including SMEs - working in the financial services sectors are increasingly realising that IT investment is vital for long-term growth.

An expected increase in the volume of electronic trading is also "driving heavy investment in developing tailor-made IT solutions".

Similarly, investments and securities services firms are exploring how they can better manage risk by investing in risk management systems and fund managers want to improve their payment systems.

"Consequently, there has seen a significant increase in IT budget in the trading and brokerage, fund management, hedge funds and the investments and securities services sectors," the report notes.

In conclusion, the report's authors state that there is an increasing trend for these companies to outsource their IT infrastructure.