Banks need to lift their game in terms of harnessing technology to deliver more for less, according to the ANZ's chief information officer, Anne Weatherston.The ANZ's CIO said banks could learn a lesson from car-makers, which have been forced to automate in order to compete for the last 15 years.Speaking at a CEDA event in Sydney yesterday, Weatherston said that in a post-GFC world banks could only succeed by "switching to new technology-enabled business models designed to achieve greater levels of effectiveness and efficiency, combined with a ruthless focus on delivering exceptional an customer service and experience."Weatherston, who announced a shake-up of the structure and composition of the ANZ's tech team last week, some 18 months after joining the ANZ from the Bank of Ireland, said that, "while cost-conscious, [banks] have not, historically, pursued costs to the same degree as manufacturing and retailing. They did not need to since money was cheap and margins high."However, it was a different world today, she said, and "rigorous cost control will now be essential within financial services." She said technology spending would also need more careful scrutiny. "Technology is, typically, one of the highest areas of expenditure in any financial services' organisation, and, to provide transparency, internal technology departments should at the very least adopt a unit cost structure for the provision of all services."This will be music to ANZ CEO Mike Smith's ears. Earlier this year, when announcing the bank's half-year results, he took a swipe at the way in which the bank had previously invested in technology, saying, "I think we were spending a lot of money for a dubious return." Speaking at CEDA, Weatherston said it was important for bankers and bank IT departments to work together to develop and automate banking processes so as to deliver efficiencies. In particular, she pointed to the automotive sector, which has harnessed technology to reduce the cost of manufacturing while meeting ever higher levels of customer expectation. "The financial services industry needs to look outside itself for the lessons of the future."She said that "process design must lead to the automation of payments and the principle should be straight through." Weatherston also called for an improvement in the design of banks' capital and risk-management systems.Although Weatherston declined to be drawn on the implications of Basel III for the ANZ, she said such regulations were all about balance sheet discipline. "Basel reinforces the basics in banking - don't lend what you haven't got."She said that from a technology perspective it was important banks develop an information infrastructure that would allow them to respond quickly to regulatory requests for information. This need for "granular, relevant and accurate data", however, had the added benefit of delivering to the bank a clearer picture of its customers.But, Weatherston warned, regulatory increases would increase costs."The impact of regulation will be to increase the cost of doing business, as the regulators demand strict standards of control, and increasing levels of balance-sheet liquidity." Savvy banks, however, would recognise that additional regulatory