Banks, brokers and fund managers spent more than $5bn (€4.1bn) on customer relationship management systems in 2003 and are set to spend further $7.1bn over the next four years, according to new research from TowerGroup, the US-based consultancy.

Customer relationship management was one of more promising technologies born in the late 1990s boom, but financial services firms - expected to be the biggest buyers - failed to take it up at the rate some analysts had expected.