Karafarin Bank, MCB, Faysal Bank and Arab Banking Corporation were takers of Islamic products, but with a couple lost after the arrival of the US parent. MCB was a success, it seemed. At the end of May 2009, it completed the major roll-out across its network of 1056 branches. This was the culmination of a project that had been under way for more than six years. The first MCB branch had gone live in May 2005. The project was originally due for completion in 2007 but, said the bank’s senior vice president, central project management office, Faysal Ejaz Khan, the delays were largely due to project management and governmental issues, plus problems in some regions of the country. Nevertheless, a great deal had been achieved, he said, with the bank previously having a decentralised, in-house developed system in around half its branches and manual processes in the rest. MCB had gained a central customer database, plus real-time and online banking for its customers throughout the country. It had also gained considerably enhanced functionality (the bank sought to keep customisation to a minimum so that it could benefit from the ‘excellent global practices’ within Symbols) and this included broad internet banking. The new system had also brought much faster time
to market, without the need to install new branch software. In terms of Islamic banking, in Pakistan it has traditionally been the case that banks have needed to have dedicated branches. By May 2009, MCB had one each of these in eleven cities. A separate version of Symbols went live for the first of these the previous month. MCB was aided by the fact that First Dawood Islamic Bank was already live in the country with the system for Shari’ah banking. MCB offers deposit accounts, liability products, mortgages and financing. Shari’ah banking had been growing at 15 to 20 per cent over the previous few years in Pakistan, said Khan. He anticipated that MCB would start to open Islamic desks and booths in conventional branches in 2010. As well as core system users for Islamic banking, some other Sungard applications (of which it has many) are in use by such banks. Risk and compliance users include Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Bahrain Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank and Kuwait Finance House, in both Dubai and Bahrain. National Commercial Bank in Saudi Arabia uses Sungard’s reconciliations software, as does United Bank Limited in Pakistan, the latter alongside Ambit Core Banking.
Later Progress
In terms of new name signings and financial results, as mentioned, Sungard had a bad few years. In 2009, most suppliers took a dip on new name sales but Sungard’s was particularly clear. For Ambit Core Banking, there was just one new customer win in 2009 (an off-the-record deal in Vietnam). There were also a growing number of apparently unsatisfied customers: BTA Bank in Kazakhstan, Bank of Taiwan, Government Savings Bank in Thailand, and Akbank in Turkey all deciding against a Symbols implementation, followed by Punjab & Sind Bank in India, which did not proceed beyond the UAT
237
phase. There were no new name signings at all in 2010, although Arab Banking Corporation, which had first signed for Symbols in 2005, was still planning to roll out the system first in Jordan and then in Algeria in 2011. Avantgard Treasury remained static at eight wins in 2010, although it provided the year’s only Islamic banking win for Sungard. This came at the Islamic treasury operations of a large bank in Egypt. There was some good news in Sudan in the second half of 2011 as it emerged that Bank of South Sudan (BoSS), the central bank of the recently established state, was implementing Ambit Core Banking. This win was no doubt aided by the fact that Symbols was historically
Islamic Report
www.ibsintelligence.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255 |
Page 256 |
Page 257 |
Page 258 |
Page 259 |
Page 260 |
Page 261 |
Page 262 |
Page 263 |
Page 264 |
Page 265 |
Page 266
