Meeting regulatory requirements is taking second place to IT cost savings, according to a study published today by Expand Research.

Respondents to a survey said that the variety of regulatory requirements and best practice frameworks available are still causing confusion, and are delaying the adoption of industry standards.

A variety of guidelines provides frameworks for achieving compliance, but the major incentives driving most projects are the need to achieve cost savings and provide cost transparency, according to Expand Research.

Richard Muirhead, chief executive at Tideway Systems, which commissioned the research, said: "Pain, confusion and spiralling costs are the symptoms that regulatory demands are perceived as causing.

"Our customers are juggling a multitude of demands from the business as well as the regulators, but there is a clear understanding that nothing will be achieved if the IT organisation isn't in the best possible shape in the first place."

Stephen Ashton, global head of IT business management at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, added: "Compliance, in whatever form required, should ideally be a natural consequence of a good IT control rather than a driver.

"When dealing with the mission-critical environment of an investment bank you cannot afford to be distracted from the cornerstones of resiliency, agility, security and effective cost management."