Bangalore, India – April 30, 2025 — A new report from New Relic reveals that high-impact IT outages cost financial services and insurance firms an average of $2.2 million per hour, underscoring the urgent need for AI-driven observability across the sector.
Based on insights from New Relic’s 2024 Observability Forecast, the report highlights that 48% of respondents in the financial sector experience high-business-impact outages at least once a week, more frequently than any other industry. Despite significant technology investments, outages remain difficult to detect and resolve, with mean time to detection at 42 minutes and resolution taking 58 minutes on average.
“Reliability, security, and efficiency are no longer technical goals — they’re business imperatives,” said Nic Benders, Chief Technical Strategist at New Relic. “Observability is helping enterprises tackle tool sprawl, mitigate outages, and modernize legacy systems, all while meeting evolving regulatory demands.”
The report finds that AI adoption is increasingly central to observability strategies, with 41% citing AI as a key driver. Capabilities like automatic root cause analysis and AI-assisted remediation are enabling faster response and recovery, especially in cloud-native environments.
In the APAC region, the pressure to evolve is particularly acute. “Too many organizations are still lagging behind, even as digital engagement accelerates,” said Simon Lee, SVP & MD, Asia Pacific and Japan at New Relic. “Observability isn’t optional anymore — it’s foundational to digital resilience and customer trust.”
As institutions modernize, many are moving to the cloud, launching digital-first subsidiaries, and consolidating their observability tools. Nearly half (49%) prefer a single platform to reduce data silos and boost system-wide visibility.
The financial returns are compelling — respondents report a 297% median ROI on observability investments. Benefits include higher uptime (49%), greater operational efficiency (42%), and improved productivity across IT teams.
“New Relic helps guide not just tech decisions, but strategic ones,” noted Carlos Pedrosa, IT Director at Banco Inter. “In today’s financial landscape, observability means business performance.”
