New Year's Resolutions: A Look Ahead to Banking. Security Priorities in 2009

Interview With Christine Barry, Research Director, Aite Group LLC An unpredictable market, a new financial services landscape, and an incoming Democratic administration. This year has been full of change, and the New Year promises even more. To gain some perspective on banking/security priorities in 2009, we spoke with Christine Barry, Research Director, Aite Group LLC, who offers insights on: Business priorities for banking institutions in 2009; Possible changes to the regulatory environment; How credit unions stand to grow; Ways institutions of all sizes are trying to grow deposits and revenue while ensuring consumer confidence. Christine Barry serves as a Research Director at Aite Group LLC, focusing on the strategies and technology implementations of global banks of all sizes. Her recent research has addressed remote deposit capture, best-practices for credit unions, capturing the valuable small-business customer, global cash management trends, and core banking system replacement. She is an acknowledged banking industry expert with more than a decade of experience in financial services products and technologies. She has worked with a broad range of U.S. and international clients analyzing industry trends and identifying market opportunities, product gaps and potential partners to help them achieve their strategic IT goals. Ms. Barry has presented her research at various conferences, including NACHA Payments, BAI TransPay, WACHA Electronic Payments Conference, Windy City Summit, and several U.S. and overseas technology vendor user conferences. She has been quoted in various media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, American Banker, Bank Systems & Technology, and Credit Union Times. She has also appeared on CNN. Before joining Aite Group, Ms. Barry was a senior consultant in the strategy practice at HighQuest Partners where she helped technology companies to enter, grow and succeed in US markets. Prior to that, she was a senior analyst in Celent Communications banking group, with a focus on cash management, commercial lending, core banking/processing, small business banking, mortgages, and biometrics. She did similar work as a research analyst for Meridien Research's (now Financial Insights) e-financial services group. She began her career gaining in-house experience as an associate in commercial and municipal lending at KBC Bank and a financial analyst for Citibank in the firm's global derivatives and strategic initiatives groups. Ms. Barry holds an M.B.A. from Babson College and a B.A. in international business from Villanova University. She is a triathlete and has completed five marathons.