ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how banks control their IT in the wake of increasing regulatory demands since the publication of Basel II in 2004 by using several empirical examples to outline how regulatory-related IT projects were managed. The empirics also illustrate how banks, as part of an industry-wide network, attempted to circumvent regulatory developments that were perceived to compromise their ability to control the transactional and informational elements of the IT portfolio in particular. The institutionalization of regulatory ideas before the reader is guided through the empirical background material on the IT–organizational relationship, followed by innovation in Sweden. Banks are embedded in institutional environments, in which certain coordination and control demands are imposed. Unlike Basel II, the Payment Services Directive II gave no expectancy of any financial benefits on implementation. As soon as the European Commission announces a new regulatory directive, an expert group of banking professionals is set up and coordinated centrally by the Swedish Bankers Association.
