For most businesses, it is difficult to put a positive spin on the catastrophic economic collapse of a country in which they trade. Not so for finance and accounting software provider Misys.

In a call to analysts following the company’s most recent financial results, CEO Mike Lawrie presented the bright side of the eye-watering rate of currency inflation in Zimbabwe (over 100,000% as this magazine went to press).

“In Zimbabwe, current systems can’t handle the number of digits required due to inflation,” he explained. That will drive banks in the country to upgrade their systems, he added, providing ample opportunity for the company to sell its latest products – which can now deal with an extended inflation numbers field – to its existing Zimbabwean customers.

Misys’s own financial future is hardly assured: research published at the start of April by PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that the financial services industry is preparing to cut back on IT investment. But it is heartening to see that at least one man in the City of London has not forgotten how to be an optimist.

Further reading:

Nexus of innovation?

The financial services industry is struggling under the weight of three decades of technology build-up.

The HMRC breach: finance fears A well-placed source at a major high street bank told Information Age that the banks are highly unlikely to be able to identify if an act of fraud has been caused by the HMRC breach.
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