As automation hollows out BPO revenues, banks and financial firms are offering a much-needed lifeline — drawing outsourcers into even core banking activities. European banks now delegate 40-50% of transaction monitoring task to BPO firms, according to a study by Pmarket Research earlier this year. The surge in banking-focused BPO services was evident in the recent quarterly results of Firstsource, where the BFSI vertical accounted for 33% of total revenue. With technology advancing fast, global financial firms now spend $14 billion annually just on maintaining legacy systems. “Regulators are also urging banks to focus on their core activities while leveraging external providers for digital banking, lending, and related services,” Welsh added.