The full product strategy was duly unveiled on 8th March 2007. This had Bankfusion as both a new universal offering and in the wrapper form for Misys’ existing core banking systems. The wrapped systems could be gradually replaced by Bankfusion functionality. As stated, this is the current proposition for both Midas and Equation users. By the end of 2007, long-standing Bankmaster/LAN user, Standard Bank, was lined up to pilot Bankfusion, with the bank set to implement it initially in Zimbabwe. Given the turmoil in this particular country, it seemed a strange choice but stemmed from an immediate problem with Bankmaster not supporting numerical fields long enough to handle the domestic currency, due to the hyper-inflation. Not long after, a second taker for Bankfusion was gained, again from the Bankmaster customer base. This was CRDB Bank in Tanzania. According to the bank’s deputy MD, CRDB was feeling the limitations of Bankmaster, including restrictions on the number of accounts, limited functionality and its flat file structure. When the bank originally selected the system, it had 20 branches; by mid-2008 it had 55 and wanted to add another ten in the next year. Meanwhile, Equation’s support for Islamic banking, added at an earlier stage than most rivals, as stated, continued to stand it in good stead for a time, while other new name business fell away. For instance, in 2006 it was taken by Bahrain-based Eskan Bank and KASB Bank in Pakistan. In the same year, IFIC Bank of Bangladesh signed for the system to support Islamic windows as well as its conventional operations. The use of Bankfusion as a wraparound for Midas and Equation and as a direct replacement for Bankmaster was formalised with the release of Bankfusion Equation in October 2009 and the branding of Bankfusion Universal Banking. Bankfusion Midas followed in the second half of 2010. There were five Bankfusion Equation users by mid-2010, including Investec, Piraeus Bank and Amsterdam Trade Bank. There was a similar number of clients for Bankfusion Universal Banking, including a brand new Misys customer, Actinver in Mexico, with Temenos beaten at the shortlist stage at this emerging bank. The next signing was Bermuda Commercial Bank (BCB), whose COO described it as ‘the most competitive product we saw’. Like many Bankfusion Universal signings, BCB had been a Bankmaster user for many years. Nonetheless, other vendors have also profited from moves away from Bankmaster in recent years, with plenty not opting for Misys’ proposed Bankfusion route.
The crucial cut-over at CRDB, over Easter 2010, was apparently successful, and Time Bank in Zimbabwe was also recruited around this time. Misys became increasingly bullish
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about future sales for the system. It predicted 20 in 2011, 30 the following year, mid-50s and then 70 in the next two years, with these projections spanning both sales of Bankfusion Universal Banking as well as Bankfusion Equation and Bankfusion Midas. Bank of Ceylon in the UK and Co-operative Bank of Kenya were added before the end of 2010 for Bankfusion Universal Banking, plus off-the-record deals in the UK and Sweden. National Bank of Kenya and Parsian Bank in Iraq were among those added in 2011. By late 2012, Misys was claiming 54 Bankfusion takers, the majority being Equation users which had signed to upgrade to Bankfusion Equation. As well as upgrades, 2010 had seen the first new name win for Bankfusion Equation, United Arab Bank in UAE. The system was taken to replace a legacy solution, MIE, and was live by 2012. The bank was a long-standing user of Trade Innovation, but the new core system was chosen in a competitive selection process, stated the vendor, with Temenos, Infosys and Oracle FSS among the contenders. The Islamic banking operations of the bank were to be run through the Islamic module of Equation.
As for Bankfusion, although progress remained relatively slow during 2011 from both a sales and cut-over perspective, there was progress in the Middle East and in terms of Islamic banking for the solution. Parsian Bank in Iraq and an off-the- record financial institution in Iran opted for the offering, as well as National Bank of Kenya (NBK). The latter opted for Bankfusion to replace Bankmaster following a selection process which included Oracle FSS, Temenos, FIS and Infosys. The solution would cover all of the main operations of NBK, including Islamic banking, and went live in the first half of 2012. Trade Innovation and Opics were also to be implemented alongside Bankfusion. In relation to the Shari’ah support within Bankfusion, Peter Scott, Misys’ banking solutions director at the time, said in the early part of 2011, ‘we are working with a group of Islamic banks in developing an Islamic banking solution’. He added that Misys had ‘institutions in mind to pilot the system’, although no names were forthcoming. An interim release of Bankfusion in December 2011 was claimed to include initial Islamic banking support (mudarabah and ijara – profit sharing and leasing, respectively), with other Shari’ah instruments to follow in a major release in May 2012. This had received a lot of interest from Bankfusion Universal Banking customers, claimed CTO, Robin Crewe, in 2011. The application, dubbed ‘Islamic window’, built on the vendor’s experience in the Middle East and the Islamic banking developments made previously for Equation. Lebanon-based Bank of Beirut set about modernising its
Islamic Report
www.ibsintelligence.com
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