IBS Journal October 2015


French core banking system supplier, SAB, aims to double turnover by 2018


Bolstered by a new shareholder, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), long-standing French core banking system supplier, SAB, is aiming to double its turnover in the next three years. In 2014, it saw an 18 per cent increase


to €15 million, but is now seeking even faster growth, in part through extending its geographical markets, targeting larger banks than in the past and capitalising on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery. The company has a broad suite of soft-


ware and a stronghold within tier three and four banks in its domestic market and French-speaking Africa. Director general, Lydie Assouline, cites 2011 signing, Caisse des Dépots et Consignations (CDC) in France (it has four million accounts), and 2013 recruit Banque de Développement Local (BDL) in Algeria (one million custom- ers, 150+ branches), as examples of SAB’s ability to move into tier two banks. There are several potential other deals,


she says, including in Luxembourg and Bel- gium. The supplier is also on the point of winning a large deal in Tunisia, with work already underway, although the contract has yet to be signed. In terms of product strategy, while


maintaining a single, standard core, SAB has been working on specific versions of its system tailored for microcredit, payments, Islamic banking and ethical banking. It has also signed partners for electronic docu- ment management, business intelligence and printing, to flesh out its offering. It is seeking to offer a SaaS solution, with this business having doubled in the last year, says Assouline. It is also looking to offer full business process outsourc- ing (BPO), with this starting to happen in securities. It has recruited Deloitte as a BPO partner for accounting and regulatory reporting, and Docapost, a subsidiary of La Banque Postale, for other areas of BPO. In addition, it now has Deloitte, Atos


and Accenture as implementation partners, with an initial 25 internal, external and cli- ent staff going through its SAB Academie training. Part of the reason for the need for partners is a major upgrade workload because SAB will not support old versions


IFC HQ, Washington, DC © AgnosticPreachersKid, Wikipedia


of its system beyond the end of 2016. The geographical expansion could be


aided by the IFC, with the expectation that it might open up new African countries, with Tanzania the initial focus. SAB already has partners elsewhere (it is migrating a number of banks in Indonesia and Turkey). It has had some success in recent years


addressing specialist payment require- ments, including at National Bank of Kuwait and Bank of China in France for


SEPA, and at some retailers that are seeking to establish payment institutions, with the French operation of security firm, Brinks, an example. Banking SaaS customers that are now


live include French government-owned project finance entity, Agence France Locale, and Compte-Nickel, which offers current accounts via France’s newsagents and tobacconists.


Martin Whybrow IN BRIEF


South Africa-based Mercantile Bank has gone live with a new nostro reconciliations solution, after an eight-week implementation. The software was supplied by TCS Financial Solutions, the bank’s long-standing technology partner. The original plan was scheduled for eleven weeks, but the project speed was


increased at the bank’s request, according to the vendor. This development follows the bank’s modernisation programme that began with


its selection of TCS’s flagship offering, Bancs, as its core banking system in 2008. This went live in 2010. The deal was later extended for Bancs to cover the treasury opera- tions of Mercantile Bank as well. —Antony Peyton


© IBS Intelligence 2015


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