BAE Systems Detica says global financial services companies are increasingly investing in tools meant to address fraud, operational risk and compliance issues.

Fifty-percent of companies responding to a Detica survey predict that spending on financial crime and regulatory compliance initiatives will grow by 20 percent in 2014, Detica said Monday.

“Despite a difficult economic climate, it is encouraging to see the financial services industry recognising the importance of continued investment in financial crime defences,” said George Robbins, Detica general manager of financial crime.

Detica identified cyber crime is the primary concern for the sector’s management team, followed by insider and payment fraud and online fraud.

Fifty-three percent believe that Basel III banking standards will have the greatest impact on business operations and 38 percent predict that data security legislation could have implications for their organization.