Treasury Department Identifies Challenges Financial Sector Faces in Adopting Cloud

The Department of the Treasury has flagged obstacles to the increasing adoption of cloud capabilities by banks and other financial institutions. In a report published Wednesday, the Treasury Department said that cloud service providers should enhance technical and incident response support for organizations using such platforms.

Specific challenges described include inconsistent transparency from CSPs regarding system outages, a shortage of qualified cloud workers, conflicts in worldwide rules and regulations, risks from potential platform incidents and risks caused by market concentration.

The Treasury Department highlighted potential issues caused by the limited CSP options available such as the potential for multiple customers to be affected by a vulnerability affecting a single provider and the potential for financial institutions to be met with less fair terms when negotiating with platform holders.

One plan to address these concerns involves the establishment of a Cloud Services Steering Group responsible for fostering cooperation among regulators, having discussions with the private sector and developing best practices for cloud adoption, the Treasury Department said.

Amazon Web Services is one CSP that offers support to financial institutions. Its customers include Nasdaq, Thomson Reuters and CapitalOne.

On Tuesday, Oracle launched Banking Cloud Services, a suite of tools meant to support deposit accounts, payments, onboarding and other processes.