Every aspect of business function has got some kind of involvement from Information technology function. F-inance as a business function is no exception. There are diverse sub functions in finance such as, treasury operations, financial control, ledger control and product control which require an element of Information technology support. Some of the important areas where Information technology can bring in significant benefits include things like automation of recurring processes applicable to these verticals, deriving strategies and so on. This is more so because of the opening up of the world trade in the latter part of 20” century. The complexities of business processes have multiplied many folds, this has given rise to growth and expansion of trading across borders and associated processes like foreign exchange management and global risk management which has made the study of finance all the more intricate. Information technology function came to the rescue in a big way by automating most of these functions .Ultimately managers were expected to use this information produced by Information technology for making judgement and important decisions. Financial institutions were at the forefront in creating the global information economy as it exists today. Information technology has many uses in finance. From trading financial instruments to keeping records of personal budgets to reporting the earnings of a business, computer technology is used by financial companies daily. Information technology allows the rapid calculation of financial statistics, as well as electronic transfers of money. New information technologies are creating new opportunities and new challenges for regulated financial intermediaries. Those that can adapt quickly and often to the rapidly changing environment of global electronic commerce may survive and prosper. However, many competitors from outside the traditional financial services industries are designing systems that try to eliminate or minimize the role of financial institutions. Not only must financial institutions be competitive in this very dynamic environment, they must grapple with the rising uncertainty about the security of their core operations. National regulators and standard setting organizations will play an essential role in deciding who succeeds in this new environment, but they will have to struggle to strike an appropriate ba(ance in the midst of such rapid change. In a nutshell, Information technology has assumed an importance of significant proportion in the way finance business works and will continue to do so at a greater scale in future. KEYWORDS Information Technology, Trading, Financial instruments, Processes
