ibs news
IBS Journal May 2015
BIL Suisse ditches Sungard’s Ambit core system
BIL Suisse, the Swiss subsidiary of Ban- que Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL), is implementing a new core banking sys- tem, Avaloq Banking Suite. The system will be provided on a business process out- sourcing (BPO) basis by Avaloq’s subsidi- ary, B-Source. On the way out is the legacy Ambit Private Banking (formerly Apsys) core system from Avaloq’s rival, Sungard. The bank considered various strategic options, including retaining the legacy sys- tem, ‘as part of the overall framework to identify the optimal long-term strategic platform’, says Adrian Leuenberger, head of wealth and investment management, member of the management board, BIL. Keeping Ambit ‘was considered viable, but in the end was not pursued’. It should be noted that the Swiss
bank’s parent had a short-lived partner- ship with Avaloq last year, when the two parties decided to jointly set up a BPO ven- ture, only to part ways a few months later. The plans to roll out Avaloq Banking Suite at BIL were also scrapped. Leuenberger points out that ‘while the discussions and negotiations were taking place, a decision was made to keep the projects in Luxem- bourg and Switzerland separate, with only selected stakeholders overseeing the over- all alignment of our IT strategy’. The two projects were also different in
scope, he continues. The joint venture ini- tiative in Luxembourg added a lot of com- plexity, whilst the implementation at BIL Suisse is a ‘much simpler task’. BIL’s legacy platform and its future are currently under review, says Leuenberger, ‘with a view to find an optimal long-term solution’. Yves Baguet, who was recruited last year to be CEO of the BIL/Avaloq joint venture, has now become the new COO of BIL and is spearheading the review. Leuenberger explains that there has
been an increase in the ‘overall complex- ity and costs of running a banking busi- ness’ due to the changes in banking reg- ulation (e.g. MiFID 2) and cross-border taxation rules (EU’s Economic and Finan- cial Affairs Council rules, Fatca and so on). ‘As a consequence, banks are increasing- ly looking at enhancing efficiency and at ways of improving their internal process- es.’ BIL Suisse, which has been offering pri- vate banking and wealth management
Adrian Leuenberger, BIL
services in Switzerland since 1984, is keen to strengthen its position in the country’s market and has adopted a new growth strategy. It also appointed a new CEO, Thi- erry de Loriol, last October, a seasoned private banking veteran who moved from Banque Cramer & Cie. ‘With this in mind, the bank has taken the initiative to equip itself with a new IT platform.’ In the second half of 2014, an analysis
was carried out ‘to identify the optimal IT platform’, says Leuenberger. B-Source and
its B-Source Master BPO offering (based on the Avaloq Banking Suite core solu- tion) was chosen for a number of rea- sons. ‘B-Source is well-known for its high standards of quality,’ Leuenberger says. It will enable ‘the enlarged operations of BIL Suisse to take a big step forward in terms of process optimisation’ and expand the bank’s IT functionalities, such as channel banking and client onboarding, ‘at a com- petitive cost level’. Also, ‘B-Source’s commu- nity of banks can be leveraged for improve- ments, in particular in light of expected upcoming regulatory requirements that will impose significant cost impacts on all banks’. He compliments the supplier’s expe- rience in back office operations, flexibility and ‘industrialised approach with regards to client onboarding projects’. The BPO set- up is convenient, as the bank’s team will have more time to focus on its customers and core business. The deal was finalised at the end of 2014 and the implementation kicked off in early 2015. The plan is to be live with B-Source Master in the second half of this year. ‘The solution includes a full platform for the front and middle offices, service desks, as well as the back office operations and steering services,’ Leuenberger says.
IN BRIEF
Russia’s state-owned bank focused on the agricultural sector, Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank), is looking to revamp its lending software and is currently in system selection mode. The bank is looking to automate a broad range of its lending operations, including in the loan origination and decision-making areas (a so-called ‘loan conveyor’) and also in the back office. The process is moving very slowly, how- ever, as the bank is notorious for its bureaucracy and conservatism, and no decisions are expected soon. Russian Agricultural Bank was set up by the Russian government 15 years ago, to
provide lending support to local agribusiness and rural population. It has a network of 78 regional branches and 1400+ outlets across the country, including the most remote areas. It is the second largest regional branch network in the country, after that of Sberbank. Russian Agricultural Bank has over six million clients and is current- ly the country’s fifth largest bank by assets. Its long-standing core banking software supplier is Banking Information Sys-
tems (BIS) with its Bisquit core offering (the system’s newer version is known as QBIS). BIS is quite a small domestic vendor and Russian Agricultural Bank is by far its largest customer. Over the last few years, BIS has been working on a centralisation project at the bank. The bank is also automating its treasury operations: last year, it kicked off a pro- ject to implement the CFT-Bank core platform from another domestic vendor, CFT.
© IBS Intelligence 2015
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