the Maltese market for the first time. The vendor fended off competition at the shortlist from Intrasoft, which proposed a newer version of Profits, and Oracle FSS with Flexcube. BML was chosen because the bank felt that it would ‘allow for


more flexibility in creating business opportunities, and provide end users with more powerful and complete information’, according to Jonathan Caruana, business solutions manager at APS. He also added that 24x7 functionality and the ability to integrate various systems online was a contributing factor, as various applications used by the bank, such as card systems ‘are still being updated offline using batch files’. Caruana also felt that the vendor offered ‘a feasible proposal, a system that met the majority of our functionality requirements [a consolidated retail banking system based on a Windows/Unix platform that covered all retail modules], and a good number of reference sites’. The contract was finalised and signed in December 2014, although work started as early as 2013. Reference site visits were made to BLOM Bank in Paris and IBL Bank in Beirut over February and March 2013, and BSN Bank in Kuala Lumpur and Commercial Bank of Kuwait in April of the same year. May 2013 saw the installation of a ‘vanilla’ version of ICBS at APS Bank, followed by an initial staff training programme, and an agreement on gap developments. The bank then set about preparing test data, parameter settings, and a data migration study.


The training programme focused on the ICBS core,


branch loans, credit facilities, interest calculation, regulatory reporting, statistics and MIS, FX, MM, transfers, Swift interface, letters of guarantee and capital markets. This was then followed with training on the stock management, purchase order and fixed assets modules. Caruana was complimentary about BML’s delivery, saying that the vendor provided ‘experienced and patient trainers with extensive technical and banking knowledge’. APS has decided to take an outsourced version of the system (it had the same arrangement with Profits), with BML taking responsibility for the implementation and business and integration consultancy. The bank itself will handle the setting up of the infrastructure, UAT, end user training, security testing, project management and data migration development. Caruana pointed out that the bank employed 270 people overall, among which there was only ‘a very


Technical Front


There has been a drawn-out move to replace old Oracle Forms technology with a Java front-end, with existing users seemingly content with what they have and not seeing a business benefit in shifting. By early 2013, BML was claiming to have completed the work for the branch teller and funds transfer and was hoping for an existing user to act as a pilot, but none had come forward to date. As of 2017, BML is claiming to have brought enhancements to the loan and deposits product in product configuration and management, advanced metrics for eligibility criteria management, advanced interest and commission calculation methods. It also claims extension of collateral management offering advanced collateral details. It has brought in better customer information system to enhance the KYC management and plans to introduce embedded FATCA and CRS feature in accordance with latest regulations. BML Istisharat also claims to have enhanced ICBSAPIs/Web services offering extended standard integration services with the following e delivery channels: E-Banking, Mobile Banking, ATM/CDM and Card less transactions, Branchless Banking / Kiosk integration, Queue Management Integration, Virtual Teller Machine Integration and Online direct payments. Strategically, BML Istisharat has indicated it will soon be launching a Loan Origination Solution (LOS) capable of integrating


Universal Banking Systems Market Report | www.ibsintelligence.com 53


limited pool of developers’. He added that the bank had opted for a ‘big bang’ as there are ‘a number of peer-to-peer and online integrations and APS specific customisations, which are very difficult to synchronise with the existing and new core banking system due to their different technologies and data structures’.


Speaking in early 2015, Caruana explained that the most significant challenge the bank had faced to date was liaising with third party vendors which provide the technology for services such as internet banking, AML and MICR, to co- ordinate these applications to ICBS. The remaining milestones of the project were gap delivery


and parameter setting, which was expected to be finished by June 2015, followed by UAT, from May 2015 to February 2016, then data migration, and a mock run in April 2016. The go-live is scheduled for June 2016. In August 2016, APS Bank Malta went live with BML Istisharat’s ICBS as its new principal banking system. ICBS replaced the Intrasoft International Profits, which was deployed by APS Bank Malta since 2002. Cortas Islamic Bank selected BML Istisharat’s ICBS core banking system in 2016, with the implementation completed and the bank going live in Nov 2017. Cortas is the tenth bank in Iraq to have selected ICBS as a core banking system. ICBS will provide the bank is accounts, batch processing, deposits and branh management, as well as consumer and corporate Murabaha, Ijarah, Istinaa, Tawarruq and Al Qard Al Hassan. In addition to the ICBS core banking module, it has also got Credit Facilities and Import Letters of Credit. Since 2016 BML Istisharat claims that it has won two new deals at Peterhouse Securities in UK and Liberty International Bank at Abu Dhabi in UAE, the latter going live in Q4 2017. There were two prospects lined up in Malaysia and Malta and its intension is to consolidate its position in these two new geography. market share in its


It also wants to increase its traditional markets of Middle east,


Europe and Africa. There were new deal wins at Lebanon based BLC bank


which selected ICBS - Treasury in favour of Ambit Treasury Management (Quantum) from FIS. This is addition to the core banking system which is supplied by BML Istisharat. Bank of Jordan, an existing ICBS user in Jordan, Bahrain and Syria, selected ICBS for its newly established Bahrain subsidiary.


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