Paranoia attack: 6 out of 10 Singapore banks ramp up cybersecurity spending

Better safe than sorry after recent hacking sprees.

A slew of high-profile hacking attacks has rattled Singaporean banks into increasing their spending on cyber-security in order to keep their systems safe.

A survey by recruitment firm Robert Half found that 60 per cent of Singaporean banks and financial services companies are increasing their spending on IT security.

This is well above the global average of 50 per cent. It is also the highest percentage of any of the markets surveyed, which included key countries such as Australia, Japan, United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

IT security is now more likely to get increased funding than many other key banking functions, such as regulatory reform and compliance (57 per cent), product development (54 per cent) or digital initiatives (online banking, user experience - 51 per cent).

The survey was conducted among 150 financial services companies in Singapore.