Two years ago, when lenders at credit unions and banks were asked to name their top challenges, managing troubled portfolios, portfolio growth and regulatory uncertainly were among their most pressing concerns.

The Boston-based research firm Aite Group published that impact note in early 2011 and found that the lenders who responded to the survey expected to see IT development support resume in 2012, followed by growing IT investments in 2013 and 2014. Looking at IT strategy and direction going forward, most saw key initiatives in three areas: increasing focus on customers, data management and integration, analytics as key to almost all initiatives, and IT investments directed to commercial loan processing.

To gauge if some of those same lenders had similar or different challenges, in early 2013, Aite conducted another survey designed to discover how the 2013-to-2014 plan was progressing and what their vision was for 2014 and 2015. The findings were published in a new report, Top U.S. Lenders Tackle Risk and IT Challenges: Not Their First Rodeo.