How the Survey Was Conducted

The articles in this publication analyze and report the results of the American Banker/Tower Group 1995 Survey of Technology in Banking.

The survey, containing many detailed questions on banking technology, was delivered to chief information officers at the top 100 U.S.-based bank holding companies. Responses were received from 23 companies, including 15 of the top 50. Those responding represented approximately 20% of the industry, as measured by noninterest expense.

Noninterest expense was chosen as a measurement because, of all publicly available figures, is best correlates with technology spending. Both quantitative and qualitative responses were used to develop industry projections.

Each bank's response was weighted according to the percentage of the industry - as measured by noninterest expense - that the bank represents. For the large variety of questions on this survey, the statistical validity of the results will vary based on the number of respondents who answered that particular question, the degree to which their interpretation of the question is consistent with other respondents', the structure of the particular question, and the degree to which the distribution of the respondents answering the question is representative of the distribution of the industry as a whole.

The weighting ensures, for example, if a money-center bank were strongly committed to Windows NT, it would be considered proportionately more significant for establishing an industry trend than a similar response from a smaller bank. All data represent an estimate for the U.S. commercial banking industry as a whole.

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