New or upcoming on the research agenda:

The clearing firm should be the cornerstone of a brokerage's technology and service architecture, but additional technology vendors may be required to supplement any missing pieces, according to a new report from Aite Group senior analyst Doug Dannemiller, which examines the technology needs of fully disclosed retail brokerage firms.

IDC Financial Insights offers an updated top-line, aggregated forecast for capital markets industry IT spending from 2008 to 2013 in three separate reports-all authored by senior research analyst, capital markets, Sean O'Dowd-which covers Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

Firms use numerous spreadsheets for sophisticated risk management data and analytics, but have very little control over their use, quality, or content, according to a report from Rodney Nelsestuen, senior research director, financial strategies and IT investments with TowerGroup, entitled Spreadsheets in Financial Services: The Last Mile (or Milewide Gap) in Risk Management.

The metamorphosis of European market structure, which has been facilitated by the introduction of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), is now so comprehensive that changes in market surveillance need to more closely resemble a revolution than an evolution, according to a recent Tabb Group report by principal Miranda Mizen (above) and analyst Will Rhode.

When deciding what IT should measure and report to business executives, CIOs should choose a small number of metrics that are relevant to the business and have the most impact on business outcomes. Read more in The Five Essential Metrics for Managing IT, principally authored by Forrester vice president, principal analyst Craig Symons.

China will continue to be the world's fastest-growing enterprise software market through 2013, with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 14.6 percent over five years, but software vendors will face challenges from the developing commercial environment, according to a recent Gartner report by research analyst Hai Hong Swinehart, research director Yanna Dharmasthira and senior research analyst Matthew Cheung.