Miser FIS
This FIS entry deals with its acquired higher end offering for the US market, Miser, which is positioned for savings banks and higher end credit unions. Indeed, FIS claims a broad span of target banks for the system, from start-ups to institutions of $25 billion+. Apparently, while other FIS systems have more users, Miser has the highest total asset size of any FIS system (put at $280 billion in February 2013). As such, Miser competes with the likes of Fiserv’s Open Solutions-derived DNA and D+H’s Harland-derived Phoenix, but also with some larger banking systems. It is another US system that came FIS’s way by acquisition and has long roots in this sector. In the higher end space, it sits alongside FIS’s Profile, Systematics and IBS. For credit unions, it is positioned as complementing FIS’s lower end solution, Mercury. The Miser system is provided on an in-house licence and hosted basis. Showing its age, it runs on the Unisys ClearPath servers, for which FIS claims, with an element of positive spin, ‘legendary reliability’. There is a Central Information File (CIF), plus support for lending, deposits, general ledger, CRM and branch automation, across both retail and commercial banking.
Miser came to FIS when it bought Texas-based Aurum
Technology from an investment group led by Chicago-based private equity firm, Willis Stein & Partners. Aurum had a number of products alongside Miser, including a business intelligence system, Smartbanker. ‘Aurum was probably the best property we saw in the market, and also the one that has the least overlap,’ said Gary Norcross, president of Fidelity’s Integrated Financial Solutions division, at the time of the deal. Aurum was set up in 1999 by EDS. When the latter decided to sell its community banking division, Willis Stein opted to
Takers
FIS looks to have built on some long-standing relationships. For instance, Massachusetts-based IC Federal Credit Union has been using Miser since 2005 but in 2014 it signed for additional FIS components for online banking and bill payment as it sought better integration between applications within its overall architecture. However, there have certainly been replacements of
Miser. For instance, Workers’ Credit Union in Massachusetts opted for COCC’s outsourced core offering, Insight, a white-labelled version of Fiserv’s Open Solutions-derived DNA. The $940 million credit union, with 71,130 members, set about replacing Miser in 2013. In the same year, Indiana-based Home Bank chose to move from Miser to CSI’s Nupoint.
take Aurum private. The opportunity for Fidelity to acquire the supplier came in around November 2003, at which point it ‘made sense for both sides’.
Aurum was active amongst the US credit unions. ‘This is a
very attractive industry, and Aurum has about 600 customers,’ said Norcross. The acquisition would also take Fidelity further into the savings and thrift marketplace, where Miser was used by a number of high-end institutions, plus community banks. As well as Miser, Aurum added Mercury, a Windows 2000-based core system for medium-sized and small credit unions. Aurum gained this when it bought Computer Consultants (CCCorp) in March 2003. The deal also brought the Aurum Banking System and BMIS service bureau, for small community banks, and the Premier service bureau, an outsourced offering for medium-sized banks using competitor Fiserv’s Premier core system.
With the acquisition of Aurum by FIS, Miser slotted in alongside the other core system acquired by FIS at this time, Sanchez’s Profile, and the other systems already within the FIS portfolio, including Horizon and, at the top end, Systematics. The main overlap with Miser appeared to be Horizon, but both systems were retained. There is an active Miser user group, in place since 1981, and it has an annual meeting in Orlando (scheduled for May in 2015), with Unisys involved in this. There are also three meetings with the Miser user group sub-committee per year and regional groups, plus one for outsource members and another for credit unions. The annual meeting includes an award for the core processing client demonstrating the most outstanding use of new technology, introduction of a new or unique product or service etc.
Heading the other way, when it consolidated three
core systems, was New York Community Bank, with $33 billion in assets. It moved from FIS’s own Metavante- derived Bankway, and other systems from Fiserv and Open Solutions. The bank expected systems-related savings from the move of around 40 to 50 per cent, as well as providing a sound platform for any further acquisitions. The conversion, in 2010, took 18 months. The recipients of the annual Miser User Group award have included Oregon Community Credit Union, centered around work done in the area of data integrity; Virginia Credit Union (for its introduction of FIS’s Cohesion middleware to embed business analysis functionality to reduce compliance-related errors, streamline account opening, and increase revenue opportunities); and University of Wisconsin Credit Union (for work in the area of credit scoring).
US Financial Services Technology Market Report |
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