Success beyond Iberia


The first successes beyond the stronghold were in southern Europe and Latin America. Altamira was taken by a handful of small Italian banks (Banca Valle Camonica, Banca di Trento Bolzano, Caja Industrial Sarda, CR Firenza, San Paolo Brescia, and SEC Padova) plus Eurobank and Commercial Bank in Greece, and YapiveKrediBankasi in Turkey. It was also taken by a clutch of banks in Portugal. In Latin America, sites were gained in Peru, Colombia,


Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica and Argentina. Some were via domestic banks, including Bancomer and Bancrecer in Mexico, BancoSafra in Brazil, Banco Santiago in Chile and BancoMercantilArgentino. Others were the Latin American operations of overseas banks, such as those of Banco Santander and BBVA. These two banks became leaders in South America via an aggressive programme of acquisitions. Both standardised their back office processing on the Alnova platform, so each new acquisition saw a new roll-out for the supplier. In fact, some of the acquired banks already had the system (BBVA acquired Bancomer, for instance). During 2003, BBVA took the Alnova system into a number of new sites, including first installations in Bolivia and El Salvador. However, it was not all about expansion. In particular, BBVA struggled in Brazil and sold off its operation here to BancoBradesco. Santander’s version is called Altair and is only used in Latin America, with the bank having standardised in Europe on a system built at Banesto, with this bank acquired by Santander in 1994. It was the latter that was being applied to Abbey in the UK following Santander’s acquisition of this institution in 2004.


Another notable deal in Latin America came at the end


of 1998 from BankBoston. The implementation started in Argentina, with the intention of following this with Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and then other countries on a phased basis. This was to replace in-house developed back office and branch systems. The ability to take an integrated solution to span both front and back office was one reason cited for the choice.


Andersens’ first incursions into central Europe with the system came in 1998 at BRE in Poland. The project started in January 1999 and had a tight deadline of January the following year. It was not too easy to find out exactly what areas of the bank the new system would support, although there was reference to a start-up entity. BRE’s managing director, JaroslawRemesz, declined to comment on any aspect of the project until ‘Altamira reaches its full operational capabilities’. Quite a few suppliers were involved


in the tender process including, at the shortlist stage, Belgium-based Callataÿ&Wouters with its Unix-based Thaler system. In the end, the bank decided it needed a mainframe- based solution. A proposed merger with Bank Handlowy was blamed for the project being delayed. BRE finally went live with the system for an internet offshoot, mBank, on 26th November, with Altamira and an in-house developed internet front-end. The project was presumably a success because in 2003 a notable second Polish deal was gained, from PKO BP (see below). BRE Bank, Poland’s third largest bank by assets, remains on Alnova for its retail business. During 2014, it set about merging with its two offshoots, MultiBank and mBank, to form one entity under the mBank brand.Alnova has remained at the heart of the new entity, alongside Temenos’ T24 for corporate banking. Speaking in mid-2014, MichałPanowicz, managing director of products, digital and marketing at mBank, said of Alnova: ‘The system is fairly modern, maybe not the most modern offering on the market but most importantly it is real- time’.


The Andersens ownership did not preclude the consultancy from working with other suppliers or selecting other systems when evaluating retail back office offerings. For instance, Andersens teamed up with SAP to bid with the latter’s BCA retail banking system in late 1999 at Coutts Bank (the selection was cancelled when it became clear that Coutts’ parent, NatWest, was likely to be bought). Andersens also recommended Misys’ Equation at Alpha Bank in Greece in the first half of 2000. Similarly, Andersens was involved in the selection at Old Mutual in South Africa, when this signed at the start of 1999 as the first taker of Kindle’s reworked Bankmaster/RS.


Prior to the formation of Alnova, work started to enhance


the corporate banking support and to add data mining functionality within the CRM element. On the technical side, a feasibility study was carried out during 1999 to look at a move to Java. In terms of a marketing strategy, the company said it would undertake an aggressive promotional campaign in Germany and Switzerland. ‘We have the capability to be global,’ said Teresa Alvarez, partner at Andersen Consulting in Spain. She cited the US as another target market. However, she admitted that this might take some time, partly because Andersen Consulting was much too ‘country-focused’ in its outlook so it was not easy for each operation to get up to speed with the application and target market.


Universal Banking Systems Market Report | www.ibsintelligence.com 15


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