IBS Journal

News

Seven of the major domestic banks in Germany have agreed to use the STEP2 pan-European ACH from EBA Clearing for their domestic mass payment processing. Included among the participants are Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) and DZ Bank. Migration to the new format is scheduled to be completed in line with the SEPA deadline, 1st February 2014.

News

US-based vendor, CSC, has extended its decades-spanning partnership with SAP. The two vendors are now co-selling their banking solutions and CSC is reselling SAP products, services and support. Users of CSC's legacy platform, Hogan, are to be offered an upgrade path to SAP for Banking.

News

Poland-based software vendor, Asseco, is about to complete its acquisition of R-Style Softlab, one of Russia's main players in the core banking software space. The deal is believed to be valued up to $30 million.

News

Temenos' partner Wipro has landed its first deal in Europe for the hosted version of the T24 core banking system. The taker is a UK-based private banking start-up.

News

Misys is believed to have landed a new deal with one of its long-standing MENA customers, Qatar National Bank (QNB). The bank's subsidiary in Tunisia is preparing to move to Equation.

News

US-based Heritage Bank is implementing the DNA offering from Open Solutions (now part of Fiserv) to consolidate its systems and accommodate future growth. The first phase of getting products set up on the DNA system has been completed, and go-live is scheduled for 5th October 2013.

News

Euroclear and Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) have announced they will launch new collateral processing services based on the former's Collateral Highway offering and the latter's equivalent, Margin Transit Utility.

News

Associated Banc-Corp, a US-based institution with $23billion in assets, is implementing the Ambit Commercial Lender system from Sungard to cover its end-to-end commercial lending processes. The new platform, selected ahead of 20 other hopefuls, will be integrated to the bank's core system, Signature from Fiserv.

News

The UK government's entity for providing and administering loans to householders within its much-touted Green Deal initiative to reduce energy consumption has implemented Nostrum's hosted lending platform to underpin this.

News

Myanmar Livestock Fisheries and Development Bank (MLFDB) is implementing the Kastle Core Banking solution from India-based vendor, 3i Infotech, becoming the first client in the country to do so. The customisation stage is currently underway and go-live is set for 24th December 2013.

News

The introduction of a new SEPA-compliant retail payments system in Estonia has been halted by the Central Bank of Estonia, Eesti Pank. The new system, dubbed EEPS Core, was due to be developed by the central bank and French vendor, Systèmes technologiques d'échange et de traitement (STET), but failed to attract the required number of banks to make the system viable. The incumbent system, ESTA, is expected to continue to be used until an alternative solution can be agreed. 

Mergers & Acquisitions

Not since July 2012 have there been a month without a billion-pound-plus deal announced in the financial services sector, but April put paid to that with Protective Life Corp's GBP 692m acquisition of MONY Life Insurance ranking as the largest sale, according to Mergermarket data.

News

Long-known to be heading into the UK banking market with its own fully-owned bank, Sainsbury's has selected a broad hosted service from FIS to underpin this. There will be a phased migration from the systems of Lloyds Bank, which is selling its 50 per cent shareholding in Sainsbury's Bank to J Sainsbury plc.

News

Two early projects to implement Misys' Bankfusion Universal Banking core system have taken different routes: one bank has finally gone live with the system, but the other one is believed to have given up and to be pondering a new system selection.

Case Studies

Home Trust Company in Canada is reaping the benefits from its enterprise-wide modernisation venture. The project, initiated in late 2007, surpassed the boundaries of a technology revamp by encompassing a full business process reorganisation, an extensive change management programme and a 100 per cent company-wide training scheme. Two members of top-tier management at Home Trust speak frankly about the journey… flaws included.

Editor's note

The number of new players in the payments sector seems to multiply by the week. They are queuing up to try to dismantle long-standing value-chains. Just about all of the newcomers are focused on the C2C or B2C spaces, whether domestic or cross-border. While for most there will still be a bank account at either end of the chain, the part in the middle is up for grabs.

Case Studies

When the US subsidiary of retail banking giant, Barclays, decided to venture into the online deposits world, it looked to domestic vendor FIS, with its Profile core banking system. Andrew Harris, director of deposit products at Barclays US, talks to IBS about the project and the subsidiary's plans for the future.

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Case Studies

ZUNO, a pure-play online bank unveiled by the Raiffeisen group two years ago, has surpassed the €1 billion mark in deposits. Its operations are underpinned by the Finacle core system from Infosys. The system's launch, says ZUNO's CIO and COO, was a complex and challenging project.