European financial services institutions will spend more than $12bn (€10.46bn) on outsourcing by 2005, according to independent market analyst Datamonitor, which also forecasts a shake-out in the applications outsourcing market as pricing becomes more aggressive.

The forecasts are contained in Datamonitor's report, Vendor Strategies in European Financial Services Outsourcing and forecasts a 9% compound annual growth rate in spending between now and 2005.