Some useful metrics quoted by HSBC.  Its hard to know how they arrived at the 11% cost reduction, but the key is that they are seeing financial benefits from technology investments.  But the percentage of transactions conducted through self service is consistent with all large banks.

He said the bank managed to cut 8.8% off all transaction processing costs last year and is on track to knock a further 11% off this year.

The bank said that in the first half more than 70% of all transactions were conducted through remote channels, including Internet, telephone and ATM. In Hong Kong, the figure was nearer to 90%.

Direct channel revenues in the period rose 29% from a year earlier, with online revenue up 70%.

Source: Finextra: HSBC sees big return from $5 billion tech spend

Their budget is enormous.

Ken Harvey, HSBC’s chief information officer, told analysts at a presentation that the bank’s annual technology budget will rise by four per cent next year to just under $5 billion. The uplift in spending will be recovered by a 16% rise in transactions and a targetted ten per cent cut in processing costs, he said.