Security and fraud risk remain the top priority for retail banks seeking to update their payments infrastructure, a study released this week by ACI WorldWide and Ovum found.

The security and privacy of consumer data have remained top concerns for financial service as technology companies like Facebook and Google come under fire for potential misuse of such data; as such, protecting against fraudulent account access is more important than ever for banks.

The Global Payments Insights: Retail Banking study found that 21% of its 277 global respondents indicated this area as their highest priority: a large lead over the second highest choice, which was regulatory compliance (12% of respondents indicated this as the top priority).

Over half of all retail banks plan to increase their investments for payment infrastructure in the next 18-24 months, according to the survey.

The banks most willing to fund such infrastructure innovation are mostly located in Asia, while “fewer banks in Europe and the Americas plan to increase their budgets in 2018,” according to the survey. However, banks in these regions do remain sensitive to the growing need for innovation in realtime payments and open banking, the survey stated.

Take a look at the full survey here.