西班牙桑坦德銀行擬提供雲存儲服務

Santander is to be the first global bank to offer cloud data storage services to corporate clients as it fights back against the competitive challenge posed to its business by some of the world’s biggest technology groups.

西班牙桑坦德銀行(Santander)將成爲首家向企業客戶提供雲數據存儲服務的全球性銀行。該行正力圖反擊某些大型科技集團給其業務帶來的競爭性挑戰。

The move highlights how banks are trying to turn their vast investment in IT and the close regulatory scrutiny of their computer systems to their advantage in their battle against the new wave of financial services disrupters.

此舉凸顯出，在對抗金融服務業新一批攪局者的鬥爭中，銀行正試圖將它們在IT領域的大量投資、以及監管層對銀行電腦系統的密切審查轉變爲它們的競爭優勢。

“As I think how am I going to compete with all these new technology players, I can offer the same services as some of these big guys,” Ana Botín, chairman of Spain’s Santander, told the Financial Times.

桑坦德銀行董事長阿納•博廷(Ana Botín)告訴英國《金融時報》：“當我思考如何與所有這些新型高科技公司競爭時，我認爲我能夠提供與部分高科技巨頭同樣的服務。”

Santander has invested £230m in building a vast data centre in Leicester, in the English Midlands — dubbed project fox — which is designed primarily to store its own data. But Ms Botín thinks the bank can make extra cash by leasing out storage to clients.

桑坦德銀行曾在一個代號“狐狸(Fox)”的項目上投資2.3億英鎊，在英國中部的萊斯特興建了一個巨大的數據中心。該數據中心主要用來存儲該行自己的數據。不過博廷認爲，該行可以通過將存儲空間出租給客戶增加收入。

Some companies question whether they can entrust their data to tech groups that sceptics argue have been tarnished in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks about US government surveillance. But they may be just as reluctant to trust banks, given the problems some have had with their IT systems. Data belonging to 76m US households were “compromised” in a cyber attack on JPMorgan Chase last year.

部分企業懷疑它們能否放心把數據交給高科技企業。持懷疑態度的人們聲稱，在愛德華•斯諾登(Edward Snowden)披露美國政府的監控計劃之後，這些高科技企業已聲名狼藉。不過，考慮到部分銀行的IT系統也存在問題，這些企業或許也同樣不願信任銀行。去年摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase)曾遭到一次網絡攻擊，導致7600萬個美國家庭的數據被“損害”。

Either way, Ms Botín’s proposal underscores how seriously banks are taking the competitive threat from new technologies — from peer-to-peer lending to digital wallets and currencies.

不管怎麼說，博廷的提議突出表明，銀行非常重視p2p貸款、數字化錢包和數字化貨幣等新技術給它們帶來的競爭性威脅。

Richard Lumb, head of financial services at Accenture, estimates banks could lose a fifth of retail banking revenues to digital rivals. “The scale and speed of disruption is a real threat,” he says.

據埃森哲(Accenture)金融服務部門主管理查德•盧姆(Richard Lumb)估計，銀行或因數字化對手而喪失五分之一的零售銀行業務營收。他說：“它們造成破壞的規模和速度構成了真正的威脅。”

Some rivals were sceptical. “Why would I want to move into data storage, which is already a very competitive market, when I have enough on my plate with my day job,” asked one senior executive. Others said the move made sense, as banks look to exploit the potential of their IT systems and the vast amounts of client data they hold.

一些銀行業同行對桑坦德此舉持懷疑態度。一名高管問道：“我們的本職工作就夠多了，爲什麼還要進入數據存儲這個競爭已十分激烈的市場？”還有人則認爲，在銀行試圖從自身IT系統及海量客戶數據中挖掘潛能之際，這麼做是有意義的。