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IBS Journal April 2015


Going it alone


Whilst Belize Bank is busy with its implementation of core software from Misys, the bank’s subsidiary in the Turks and Caicos Islands decided to go its own way by cutting its technology outsourcing ties with its parent and deploying a new core banking system from regional vendor, International Private Banking Systems (IPBS).


British Caribbean Bank (BCB) in Turks and Caicos has gone its own technology route, independently from its parent, Belize Bank. Whilst Belize Bank has been pioneering Misys’ latest version of its core offering, Fusionbanking Essence, BCB was firm in its knowledge that it ‘did not want Misys’, according to Stewart Howard, BCB’s managing director. But it also knew that it had to move fast, as it was demerging from its parent bank and taking ownership of its technology and operations. Belize Bank’s legacy core banking


system, developed in-house over 15 years ago, was supporting BCB’s operations on an outsourced basis. It was an inconven- ient set-up, with batch processing and long delays in accommodating BCB’s requests, plus the time difference be- tween Belize and Turks and Caicos meant


that BCB had only a limited time window in the day to deal with Belize Bank. Also, the old Unix-based system was prone to ‘major downtime’ and had ‘difficulties with changes’, recalls Howard. As Belize Bank unveiled its plans


to replace the legacy software with Fusionbanking Essence in mid-2014, BCB embarked on its own technology initia- tive. Belize Bank’s team was inundated with the project and had very little time and spare resources for BCB. As Belize Bank set March 2016 as its cutover date, BCB decided it would implement new core software as soon as possible, so that when the Misys cutover date comes, BCB’s own system will already have at least 15 months worth of history and data. This would be sufficient for end- users, customers and regulators, Howard notes. So there would be no migration of history to begin with. And when the time comes to shut down the old systems at Belize Bank, BCB will have sufficient time and resources to deal with the older historical data from that legacy software. Bahamas-based vendor, International


‘Anyone who claims that their conversion went smoothly is simply not being honest. Migration is the time when everyone is tearing their hair out.’


Stewart Howard, British Caribbean Bank


Private Banking Systems (IPBS), was cho- sen to provide BCB with the new front- to-back office core banking system. The bank liked the physical proximity of the vendor and its responsiveness. ‘Flexibility and reliability were key,’ says Howard. ‘We are getting support in normal working hours, and if there are any problems we get a timely response from IPBS.’ This is a major change from the previous set-up and such a relief for the team, he adds. Also, the system and accompanying services came with ‘a favourable price, taking into consideration our size and support required’. As for the IPBS system itself, Howard


30 © IBS Intelligence 2015 www.ibsintelligence.com


case study: british caribbean bank


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