IBS Journal November 2015


Comarch banks on cloud-powered front office products, scraps core banking system project


Polish software heavyweight Comarch is hoping to carve itself a greater piece of the finance market in Western Europe and the Middle East with a flagship range of front office solutions. Andrzej Przewiezlikowski, vice-


president at Comarch and head of its finan- cial services division, told those at the firm’s yearly user group conference that the com- pany is looking at its services in a three- tiered model. Ranked foremost for the ven- dor are its internet banking, wealth man- agement and loan origination offerings, while CRM and asset management fall into the lower tiers. Comarch is a big player in the Eastern


European market, especially so in its home country where, Przewiezlikowski tells IBS Journal, more than 70% of the banks oper- ating in the country use Comarch software in one way or another.


53.7% of the company’s revenue


comes from Central and Eastern Europe, a figure that Przewiezlikowski hopes will be reduced as more clients appear globally. The finance division of Comarch is its third largest, behind public sector services and telecoms, which was the firm’s main busi- ness at founding. Przewiezlikowski, though, says that he can see finance services eclips- ing both in the coming years. Banks are looking for a new sense of


identity, he says. When faced with disrup- tors and challengers they have no choice but to modernise their systems. When those banks start to look for a new digital operation Comarch wants to be on the list of go-to providers. Some of the firm’s newest schemes,


powered by the internet of things (IoT), will be touted as an avenue for an institution’s modernisation. These include an iBea-


con service, programmable to recognise customers as they walk past branches or as they interact with ATMs, giving them a more personal banking experience. With all of this activity on the front


office side, IBS Journal asked Przewiez- likowski about whether the company had progressed further on its development of a core system. The reply was furnished with a smirk: they scrapped it last year. Instead, Comarch plans to work closely with provid- ers of core systems to ensure their packages work as effortlessly as possible. Comarch currently spends 11% of its


total revenue on research and development, something that Przewiezlikowski thinks will help it break further ground in becoming a global vendor. The company is already courting new clients for 2016, he adds, including some based in the Middle East. Alex Hamilton


First Data completes biggest IPO of 2015, plans further global expansion


US payments firm First Data has floated on the New York Stock Exchange at $16 per share, raising around $2.6 billion from 160 million shares. The figure represents a slight down-


turn on what had been expected of the company – analysts had predicted the shares to fetch between $18 and $20. Despite this, the IPO has emerged as the largest for 2015. Much of the raised capital will be put


towards the company’s heavy debt load, which is thought to be around $18 billion. Sanjiv Das, executive vice-president of global financial solutions at First Data, believes that the flotation has given the company an impetus and is a great result considering the fluctuating nature of the market.


Future plans First Data will now be looking to the future,


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and plans to improve its global presence across all regions. Das tells IBS Journal that First Data already has, through joint ventures with prominent banks, an 8% market share in the UK, as well as 15% in Ireland and 19% in Poland. Banks in Europe, he says, are looking


for ventures with companies like First Data to shave figures from their cost structures. There is, he says, ‘a strong desire’ from institutions in the continent towards embracing innovation and keeping up with market disruptors. Ecommerce is becoming global, adds


Das. In emerging regions like India, where there are currently only 17 million cards among a population of more than 1.2 bil- lion, First Data wants to be ‘right in the mid- dle’ when the ‘plastic explosion’ happens and cards become far more prominent. Private equity firm KKR & Co bought


First Data in 2007 for a $30 billion price tag,


Sanjiv Das, First Data


including debt and fees. Since then it has been looking to obtain some profit from First Data – which like many others had to battle through the recession. KKR has passed 15% of the firm on to investors in the IPO.


Alex Hamilton


IBS Intelligence has launched its IBS Chat Forum, a global platform to bring industry participants together on everything related to banking and financial services technology. Log on to www.ibsintelligence.com/ibschat and connect with peers across the globe now!


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