Strategic Technology: IBM Acquire Promontory – Levelling Up in the AI & Data Game – Charting Stacks

Last week IBM announced they had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire strategic consultancy Promontory Financial Group. Promontory is not exactly a household name, but they are one of the very top tier of global banking consultancies, with a particular focus on regulation and compliance. IBM cite a McKinsey figure of 270 Billion costs related to compliance, which consists of direct compliance spend of 99 Billion, with the remainder accounted for with other forms of compliance leakage (fines, damage to goodwill etc.). For clarity we must state that there is no public data available for this figure, but it seems in-line with other research that is available. In many ways the figures are somewhat irrelevant, if we look at, for example, the destruction to shareholder value that can occur when a financial institution is not in compliance with relevant rules and regulations.