IBS Journal September 2015
Atom Bank fleshes out technology strategy, loses CTO
The technology set-up of UK-based banking start-up, Atom Bank, is shaping up. It has become the first taker of the
latest version of Iress’ Mortgage Sales & Origination (MSO) suite. The MSO platform will support Atom Bank’s mortgage busi- ness, front-to-back office. A long-standing domestic vendor,
Intelligent Environments (IE), is providing the bank with its Interact digital banking platform, to work across iOS, Android and Windows. The platform was brought to market in 2012. The bank has even looked towards
game developers to make their upcoming apps fluid and easy to use, especially for the 18 to 34 market – those who already routinely use their phones for actions like booking tickets and paying for coffee. A biometric authentication system is
currently being implemented, according to Stewart Bromley, Atom Bank’s COO and director of customer experience. Meanwhile, Genesys, which specialises
in customer experience and contact centre solutions, was onboarded earlier this year to provide Atom Bank with a customer service solution.
At the back-end, the bank will rely on the
Profile core banking system from a US soft- ware heavyweight, FIS. The bank was origi- nally in conversations with FIS’s rival, Fiserv, to implement its Agiliti platform, but the deal did not materialise. IBS exclusively reported on Atom’s plans to move to FIS last year. Notably, Atom Bank’s chairman and
founder, Anthony Thomson, is a non- executive director of the Agiliti business unit. Agiliti is a hosted front-to-back office technology offering based on Fiserv’s systems, brought to market in mid-2014 specifically to target start-ups and the low-end banking players in the UK. At the heart of the offering is Fiserv’s old-standing core banking product, Signature. The implementation of Profile at Atom
Bank is now underway, in parallel to two other UK projects of FIS: Harrods Bank and Sainsbury’s Bank. Profile is an old-timer in the banking
tech world: it originated in the 1980s and is a mainframe-based offering. However, this has not deterred the bank. Core banking software is a commodity, it does not add any differentiation to the customer, Bromley says. So as long as it supports the required functionality and the vendor commits to
Stewart Bromley, Atom
deliver on time and to the agreed specifica- tions, it is all good. A spanner in the works for Atom Bank,
however, might be the recent departure of its CTO, Paul Hanks. Hanks joined the bank in spring 2014, moving from Sopra Steria where he was principal consultant in the financial services division. His previous employers include Capgemini and Misys. Atom Bank has recently been granted a
restricted licence by the UK regulators, and is gearing up for a limited ‘friends and fam- ily’ trial launch later this year. It expects the restrictions to be lifted and be fully open for business in 2016.
Alex Hamilton & Tanya Andreasyan
Swiss bliss as Avaloq reports progress with core software projects in France and UK
Switzerland-based private banking software specialist, Avaloq, has gained its first non-banking live site in the UK and completes a major tech overhaul at a private bank in France. CanaccordGenuity Wealth Management
(CGWM) has given Avaloq a foot in the door in the UK’s non-banking wealth and investment management space. CGWM has gone live with Avaloq Banking Suite in a project that was initiated in late 2013. The new platform has replaced CGWM’s legacy back office system, Flagship (supplied by 3i Infotech), and a port- folio management system from a UK-based specialist supplier, Pulse Software Systems. Avaloq has been vocal about its
intentions to enter the much fragmented non-banking wealth management space in the UK. It took the vendor two years to
clinch the contract with CGWM. The wealth manager went through a change of own- ership in the course of the system selection – the entity was known as Collins Stewart Wealth Management, and was acquired by Canada’s Canaccord Financial in late 2011 – so the initial project was put on hold and later the process started from scratch. The scope of the deal covers Canac-
cord’s onshore and offshore operations in London, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man and Switzerland. Avaloq Banking Suite covers front-to-back office functionality. CGWM manages £11 billion of assets on behalf of 12,000 clients. Meanwhile, SwissLifeBanquePrivée
(SLBP) in France has completed its tran- sition to the Avaloq Banking Suite, also front-to-back office. The new platform
© IBS Intelligence 2015
supports the bank’s private banking and securities holding activities. It has replaced the
V.bank system from a French developer, Viveo, that was acquired by Temenos in late 2009. SLBP selected
V.bank in 2008, but was
forced to look for the alternative a few years later as Temenos sunsetted the sys- tem. The vendor did offer T24 as a replace- ment route for the Viveo customers, but the uptake was minimal. SLBP opted for Avaloq in 2012. The
vendor’s long-standing integrator, Orbi- um, worked on the project. IBS exclusively reported on the project progress in mid- 2013 as the bank was six months into its 20-month schedule. The go-live at the time was planned for October 2014. Tanya Andreasyan
www.ibsintelligence.com 7
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