Sopra Banking Platform/Thaler Sopra Banking Software


System origins


Within what is now Sopra Banking Software there is the Callataÿ & Wouters (C&W)-derived Thaler system, which is retail and securities in focus. It is called Sopra Banking Platform, and it sits alongside another acquired core banking solution, Delta-Bank from Delta Informatique (now Sopra Banking Amplitude, see separate entry). The Brussels-based C&W was strong in the Benelux (Rabobank is among notable users) but also gained sites in neighbouring European countries, including the UK and France, and moved beyond here, into Asia Pacific, North Africa and the CIS. It had a good track-record and had, until recently, remained immune from the consolidation and upheaval that has occurred elsewhere in the sector. It was, however, after some speculation, acquired by French vendor, Sopra, in 2012. It also has a partnership with SAP, which has seen it embed SAP components into Thaler.


C&W started in IT services for the financial sector. Out of one or two development projects, a back office system started to emerge. A first version was developed with Caisse Privée Banque and went live there in 1992 on a Bull mainframe. In 1993, the supplier set about developing a version to run on Unix. Fortis Bank was the first taker of the system, dubbed Thaler, and went live in 1995. The solution is heavily parameterised and has a layered


architecture that allowed C&W to support a range of different platforms, including IBM’s zOS and DB2 on the mainframe. C&W’s first taker in France, BNP Paribas, has this version and it has meant IBM has been a proactive partner, with a DB2


Notable projects and system development


The long and expanding relationship with Rabobank started with this bank’s Robeco subsidiary, which took Thaler for a start-up operation in Belgium. In mid-2002 Rabobank then signed for Thaler for Singapore, to replace ERI’s Olympic. Thaler has, however, been replaced by Avaloq in Singapore in recent years. This was C&W’s first Asian site and a Singapore office followed. In late 2002, Rabobank also decided to use Thaler, along with the channel layer, at this time dubbed Kyudo, for its internet-only retail bank in Belgium. The standalone operation, Rabobank.be, offered Belgian citizens a number of basic financial services, including payment and savings accounts, and the opportunity to invest in Robeco funds. The Dutch bank replicated the model for other European countries and this saw the introduction of Thaler for these, starting with RaboDirect Ireland in mid-2005, followed by similar start-ups in New Zealand and Australia. The bank installed individual versions of Thaler each time, hosted by a third party in Amsterdam.


version for Unix at the planning stage in late 2010. A treasury back office component was added in 1998,


taken by San Paolo Bank in Luxembourg. This bank also piloted a data warehouse, in 2000. Argenta Spaarbank was the first site for a multi-channel offering. A number of new functions were added to the latter including full cash administration, securities and portfolio management, deposits, and secure messaging.


An important early taker, Banque de la Poste, adopted both


the data warehouse and channel components. This bank took Thaler into a high-volume environment at an early stage (1996), to support its financial services business through the Belgian post office network. This has been a long relationship as the bank signed in 2009 to upgrade to the latest version of Thaler. Expansion beyond Benelux happened from the late 1990s, initially with Siemens as an influential partner. In 1998, Siemens won a major outsource contract from National Savings and Investments in the UK. Thaler was implemented to support only ISAs at the start. More of the agency’s products have since been migrated so that Thaler has come to support most of its core processing. At one time C&W had up to 35 staff on-site at the Agency and it opened a small UK office. Siemens was also involved in the project at Banque de la Poste and in 1999 signed a global partnership with C&W. C&W extended its direct presence (a Paris office was added in 2001, a Geneva one in 2003) and it sought local distributors and larger implementation partners.


Rabobank also used Thaler to launch Bizner Bank, an internet bank aimed at small businesses in the Netherlands, but subsequently pulled the plug on this initiative. The latter part of 2010 then witnessed the selection of Thaler for the Polish internet start-up, BGZOptima, part of Bank BGZ which, in turn, is a subsidiary of Rabobank. BGZOptima was billed as the first online-only savings bank in Poland, and would allow customers to sign contracts by SMS. It offered a variety of savings accounts as well as investment products. It would not, however, sell current accounts. Thaler, together with C&W’s B2C front-end, subsequently went live here a year later, providing the vendor with its first Polish live site. Bank BPS in Poland then followed suit, signing up in 2012. In Luxembourg, San Paolo Bank was lost when it decided


to standardise on Misys’ Midas and C&W’s other taker, Fortis Bank, also fell by the wayside, when it was acquired by Banque Générale du Luxembourg. However, in mid-2004, Mizuho Trust & Banking in Luxembourg signed for Thaler for all central administrative functions such as customer information management, accounting and risk management. C&W then forged a tie-up with Luxembourg-based Clearstream Services to offer ASP services. UFG-LFP Bank in Luxembourg (Nord


Back Office Systems & Suppliers (BOSS) | www.ibsintelligence.com 667


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