IBS Journal February 2015
Hampden & Co close to launching on Flexcube core banking system from Oracle FSS
Hampden & Co, a new bank in the UK for high net-worth individuals, has gone on record about its choice of software as it gears up for launch at the end of Q1 this year. The vendor of choice, as IBS exclu- sively reported last year, is Oracle FSS. Its Flexcube core system has been installed for the bank on a hosted basis – known as Ora- cle Managed Cloud Services – at the ven- dor’s data centre in Scotland, to support the bank’s front to back office operations. Senthil Kumar, VP of business develop- ment at Oracle FSS, comments that having a UK-based data centre was an important factor that influenced the bank’s decision in favour of the vendor. Jeremy Vaughan, MD of Hampden & Co, comments that ‘a hosted offering ticked all the boxes’. Vaughan says that the bank’s team of
‘experienced bankers’ evaluated a number of offerings on the market prior to settling on Flexcube. ‘From the outset, we had a good idea of what we wanted from the core platform and its provider,’ he states. In the early days (in spring 2013), when Hampden & Co was known as Scoban, it came close to signing a deal with out- sourcing provider Wipro and its partner Temenos, but the contract did not mate- rialise. ‘The decision to go with Oracle FSS
introduced by the UK’s regulators. Hampden & Co is a full-service banking
Jeremy Vaughan, Hampden & Co
was not monetary, but was focused on the match to our requirements and the willing- ness of the provider to engage with us and accommodate our needs.’ He adds that the team ‘was impressed by Flexcube and by Oracle’s willingness to modify the system’. The flexibility of the software will enable Hampden & Co to offer ‘bespoke solutions rather than rigid products to best fit our cli- ents’ needs’. Vaughan explains that Hampden &
Co’s proposition to private banking cli- ents is ‘looking at a client and their busi- ness in its entirety’. Oracle FSS parameter- ised Flexcube’s loan origination module to fit this business model, says Kumar. It has also included changes to comply with the ‘responsible lending’ requirements recently
institution, offering current accounts, cards (Mastercard), direct debits, standing orders, loans, and international payments. It will open with around 50 staff and two branch- es, in London and Edinburgh, with the Lon- don one as its HQ. It will also offer person- alised telephone services (each customer will be assigned a personal relationship manager and a dedicated support team), and there will be ‘a straightforward set’ of online banking services available (pay- ments, viewing transactions, going paper- less etc). The next step will be to look into mobile banking capabilities, says Vaughan. Flexcube has been interfaced to an
intranet system with a CRM module and document storage solution, both supplied by third parties. The software is now being tested. The implementation has been done
by the bank and the vendor, without third parties. ‘We wanted to keep a very short chain of command,’ explains Vaughan. The project has been smooth, in part due to the greenfield nature of Hampden & Co and the lack of migration issues, he mus- es. ‘Oracle has been responsive and we are pleased with our collaboration.’
Sainsbury’s Bank suffers systems outage
The banking arm of the UK supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s, suffered a systems out- age in January, leaving customers with- out access to savings accounts or able to use cards. The network was down for several hours, with full services resum- ing at 6.30pm. In a statement, Sainsbury’s Bank said: ‘Some customers experienced issues with their credit cards and savings accounts for a few hours yesterday. We’ve reassured them that the problem has been fixed and apologised for any inconven- ience caused.’ In mid-2013, Sainsbury’s Bank signed
with FIS to move its core banking system to an outsourced version of FIS’s Pro- file to support the bank’s savings, loans,
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mortgages and credit card accounts, across back office and telephone, internet and mobile delivery channels. The bank has committed £92 million to the venture, with a 42-month phased migration plan outlined to shift customer data from its legacy set-up, which was outsourced to Lloyds Bank and based on another third party software package. At the time, Sains- bury’s also acquired the outstanding 50 per cent stake in its banking unit, held by Lloyds, for £248 million. In response to the question of which system was responsi- ble for the outage, Sainsbury’s Bank said: ‘Lloyds Banking Group will continue to deliver our banking services until we tran- sition to our new systems.’ Another UK
© IBS Intelligence 2015
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bank, RBS, was handed down a £56 million fine in November last year by the Bank of England, following a failure of its systems in 2012 which left some customers unable to make payments for up to three weeks. RBS subsequently committed to a £500 million overhaul of its software and dis- aster recovery systems, to be completed over the next few years. Sainsbury’s is not the only UK super-
market to experience difficulties with its banking IT systems. Tesco Bank, which in 2011 moved to an outsourced set-up based on Fiserv’s Signature system, also suffered downtime when transferring accounts from its previous infrastructure, run by RBS.
ibs news
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