module. Since 2001, this functionality had been supported by Path›s iMAL, but Marwan Khawand, the bank›s manager and head of information systems, told IBS that the solution ‹was not covering all business requirements related to capital markets›. FNB›s investment arm, MECG, and consumer loan subsidiary, Capital Finance Company, were already running ICBS so moving towards a common platform would be advantageous for integration of FNB at group level, he added. BML also bagged domestic start-up, Levant Investment


Bank (Libank), which opted for ICBS in 2012. Libank opened for business in November after going live with basic functions such as customer database, interest calculation and accounting channels. The project›s second phase, deploying core back office functionality for conventional banking and regulatory and capital markets modules, was completed in January 2013. The new technology covered the operations carried out at Libank›s head office and supported around 50 users at the outset. The bank›s services mainly focus on project finance, mergers and acquisitions and investment funds. In 2013, the vendor gained a new deal with Sharjah-


based Investbank, one of the oldest banks in the UAE, which chose ICBS to be installed at its new subsidiary in Beirut. For its domestic operations, Investbank was a long-standing user of Oracle FSS’s Flexcube. It offers a range of retail banking services, with a focus on commercial banking (particularly project and trade finance). Go-live was provisioned for September the same year and there was a slight delay, of one month, before cutover across a wide range of modules. Later in the year, a deal with International Bank of


Somalia was announced, BML›s first success in the country. This Islamic bank, which had also considered Temenos› T24, was targeting a launch of February 2014 with ICBS. The final stage of the selection took place in Dubai, and involved a detailed walkthrough and demonstration of the core banking solutions on offer. This was clearly a pioneer market, as Somalia lacked banking infrastructure. Indeed, Faddoul predicted that purchasing equipment, building premises, hiring staff and dealing with the local telecoms infrastructure would prove challenging. ‘Everything will have to start from scratch,’ he said. At this time there was only one bank apart from the central bank, First Somali Bank. This outfit, also an Islamic bank, opened its doors in 2012. Before then, Somalia relied on informal hawala, or money-changing networks, as sections of the banking industry were blacklisted by the US government as part of the War on Terror. The first couple of BML staff arrived on site for the implementation at the start of June 2014, with the bank beginning operations in October 2014.


Also notable and not particularly predictable from a


geographical perspective, the second Islamic deal of 2013 came from Sweden, where a start-up, Aman Bank. It was planning to open for business in July 2014 (it was still waiting for the licence in early June). The bank, based in Stockholm, opted for ICBS in late December 2013. According to Faddoul, this followed a selection process in which the bank narrowed its choice to BML plus Temenos and Path Solutions. The full range


52


of ICBS modules were to be deployed at Aman Bank, including the core application, profit sharing calculation, general batch processing, branch modules, personal finance, and transfers. Faddoul felt the new technology would ‘allow Aman Bank to cater for the banking needs of the Muslim community in a non-Muslim country. Furthermore, the rapidity of the implementation will allow the bank to grab most of the market for such services and be well ahead of any possible future competitor’. With Aman Bank as a reference for the vendor, Faddoul hoped to pursue further contracts in Scandinavia for both Islamic and conventional banking. However, it still had not opened for business by the end of Q1 2015. An early deal in 2014 was more conventional, coming from


Lebanon-based Middle East and Africa Bank (MEAB), a long-standing user of ICBS, for its start-up subsidiary in Iraq. The modular scope included the core application, general ledger, bills management, loans management, FX, MM, transfers, trade finance, and letters of guarantee, plus Swift and ATM interfaces. The intention was to launch ICBS at the subsidiary and three branches – located in Baghdad, Basra and Erbil – by July 2014. However, as of early 2015, only the Baghdad and Basra branches seemed to have materialised, with the Baghdad branch apparently being the only one to have gone live with ICBS. Also in 2014, new contracts were signed for the use of additional modules by clients already using the ICBS core system. These were at Erbil Bank (for the ICBS credit module), Levant Investment Bank – Beirut (for both the ICBS money market and credit modules), BLC Bank (for the ICBS capital markets module) and National Bank of Iraq (for the ICBS ATM/ POS Card interface).


Due to the rise of the so-called ‘Islamic state’ in Iraq and Syria, the Middle East saw further social destabilisation and political disruption during 2013 and 2014 (with no end seemingly in sight). This has also been detrimental, unsurprisingly, to the operations of banks located in areas affected by the troubles. That said, BML has not only been successful in obtaining new contracts during this time (see above), but has also managed to maintain support for its clients in trouble spots. A significant example of this is at Bank of Mosul. The city was captured by the terrorist group in the summer of 2014, making the head office and main branch of the bank inaccessible to its personnel. However, BML claims that, within a couple of days, it had identified a hardware supplier through Quantech in Beirut. This was then followed up with a new installation in Erbil, with Oracle and ICBS being reimplemented, allowing the bank to begin operations once more. BML also carried out training for client staff at Central Bank of Iraq (for the branch management system), Shaat al Arab – Baghdad (for Ciris), and MEAB (for all of the modules taken to support its operations in Iraq). APS Bank in Malta has been an important addition to


BML’s ranks. This is to replace its Profits legacy system from Greek vendor Intrasoft International, which has been in place at the bank since 2002. BML won the contract after a lengthy selection process initiated in August 2012, allowing it to enter


Universal Banking Systems Market Report | www.ibsintelligence.com


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