Experience certainty. IT ServicesBusiness SolutionsConsulting
2017 Number 27
LONDON MutuaL CreDit uNiON
plus n united Kingdom Community Savings Bank Association n south AfricA Nedbank Insurance n south AfricA Mercantile Bank
n chinA PSBC Consumer Finance Company n chinA Qinghai Rural Credit Union n chinA Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank n isrAel Bank Yahav
WBy Venkateshwaran Srinivasan, Head of TCS Financial Solutions, and R Vivekanand, Co-Head of TCS Financial Solutions
AnyWhere, Anytime… Anyone
We are living and working in times of unprecedented change.
Change in the way we live our lives and more importantly,
change in the ways we interact with the people and things
around us. At the vanguard of this change is technology,
often wrapped in a single word — “digital” —which has in a
way come to mean a combination of several movements of
critical importance.
Throughout history, humankind has been preoccupied
by the ways in which we earn, save, and invest our financial
assets. To be at this unique intersection of financial services
and technology, right at the front-end of shaping how one
impacts the other, is a unique privilege that all of us enjoy. We
at TCS Financial Solutions who live and work in this exciting
environment have strived to continuously bring the best of
financial technology to our customers, and are proud to be
playing a significant part in shaping history.
In the last two decades, financial services has broken several
barriers. In recent history, using financial services meant a visit
to a nearby “branch” of a financial institution during “working
hours” of the institution. Then, with the advent of the Internet,
we gained the ability to move money, trade stocks, or conduct
other financial services from the comfort of our own homes, at
any time we choose. Now, the mobile revolution has made it
possible to conduct financial services from anywhere.
Along with the elimination of barriers in time and space, we
are also witnessing substantial changes in the very definition
of a financial institution. Is it the bank where you entrust
your savings? Or is it the fintech company whose mobile
wallet helps you pay your bills with seamless ease? Services
conventionally provided by banks and financial institutions
are now being performed by crowdsourced lenders, service
aggregators, and online marketplaces. Technology also makes
financial services much more accessible to people in all strata
of society, thereby creating an inclusive framework which has
evaded governments for decades.
We seem to be moving to a world in which anyone can be
your financial service provider, at least in terms of the “last mile”
of service delivery. From the customer perspective, your lender
may be someone who knows you personally, or a consortium
of lenders who rely on social media-based indicators of your
creditworthiness. In either scenario, it’s the user experience for
borrowers and lenders that drives differentiation, rather than
the underlying bare-bones functionality of originating and
tracking loans.
What goes into building a better user experience in financial
services? For starters, you need to know customers’ preferences
and patterns of spending and saving. Traditionally, financial
institutions have zealously guarded this information, but that’s
starting to change with the open API movement along with
upcoming regulatory initiatives such as PSD2, which requires
banks to make customer data available to third-party providers.
The next wave of financial services will be derived from
customer data and context which get orchestrated into
intuitive user experiences. This will require collaboration
among various financial market participants, each playing to
their unique strengths and drawing on others to enhance and
ISTOCkPH
OTO
2
enrich the customer experience.
In this way, we are anticipating the development of a powerful
ecosystem for financial services, not unlike the ecosystem
created with Internet technologies built on various networks
dating back to the 1970s. This financial services ecosystem
will make full use of a combination of various innovative ideas
from the last ten years, including mobile networks, cloud
computing, data analytics, automation, blockchain, and Agile
development. Combined, these technologies will enable a
new paradigm in service delivery, time compression, and risk
reduction, all delivered at speed and at scale.
At TCS BaNCS, our time-tested product offerings span the
entire financial services domain throughout banking, capital
markets, and insurance. The decades of experience in deliver-
ing solutions to diverse organizations globally and the result-
ing learnings are baked not just into our solutions, but also our
corporate DNA.
We are committed to sustaining and building further on the
robust TCS BaNCS platform, drawing upon our customer-cen-
tric approach, our focus on delivery excellence, and our ability
to deliver and sustain transformational mission-critical projects
for organizations of any size – large or small. We strive toward
continuous improvement in all aspects of how we work as a
team and work with our customers.
Just as our financial institution customers are rethinking their
roles within the financial services ecosystem, at TCS Financial
Solutions, we are also reimagining TCS BaNCS with our new
offerings for Cloud, Blockchain, and Digital. Our product
roadmaps are continuously being refined, absorbing customer
feedback, and responding to the high velocity of change in a
nimble yet sure-footed manner. And our delivery models are
becoming truly Agile.
To support our customers throughout these historical
changes, we are committed to enabling our financial institution
customers to participate fully in financial services ecosystems
as they evolve. Moreover, we expect that TCS BaNCS customers
will lead the way in building and reinforcing the financial
brands of the future.
Throughout this great journey, we look forward to working
in partnership with you, and connecting you with each other.
Venkateshwaran Srinivasan
(“Venkat”), Head of
TCS Financial Solutions,
has overall responsibility
for TCS Financial Solutions.
R Vivekanand (“Vivek”),
Co-Head of
TCS Financial Solutions,
heads up the new offerings from
TCS BaNCS (Cloud, Blockchain
and Digital), and oversees
business development.
3
ISTOCkPH
OTO
from the editorle
tter
4
For any inquiries: Email: [email protected] Phone: +91 80 6725 6963
N Ganapathy Subramaniam has been a critical innovating, motivating
and energizing force in Tata Consultancy Services for the past 34 years.
It was just April 2007 when NGS sparked the formation of
TCS BaNCS as a strategic business unit within TCS. The concept was
to deliver a comprehensive software platform for the entire financial
services industry, by building upon the strengths of TCS as one of the
world’s largest professional services company. Given our deep bench
of subject-matter experts in financial services coupled with unrivaled
technology deployment capabilities, NGS knew that TCS could build
better application solutions than what the market was offering.
At the time, the launch of a separate software product business
unit represented new ground for the Indian IT services industry at
large. Even though TCS had been building and supporting high-level
software products behind the scenes throughout the industry, the
broader perception of TCS was that of a consulting and outsourcing
firm. It was a bold leap to imagine that financial institutions worldwide
would entrust their entire core systems for banking, capital markets,
and/or insurance to what was perceived to be a more “traditional”
services company.
Through NGS’ masterful leadership, TCS BaNCS has been an
unqualified success. He set ambitious goals, worked tirelessly to
achieve them, and pushed all the teams to deliver at the highest
levels on behalf of our customers across six continents.
In February 2017, NGS was named COO of TCS and Executive
Director on the Board.
All of us at TCS Financial Solutions are extremely proud to have
followed NGS throughout the extraordinary TCS BaNCS journey, and
are eager to continue contributing to TCS’ amazing success worldwide.
It is fitting to mark this moment of transition with an oversized
TCS BaNCS Customer Newsletter, and this issue features eight case
studies.
In the Uk, London Mutual Credit Union (cover story, page 6) and
Community Savings Bank Association (page 10) have both gone live
on one of our new products, TCS BaNCS on the Cloud. We also profile
three of our most recent China success stories (page 18), where TCS
BaNCS is being deployed from rural areas to the largest cities.
Also, be sure to read our extended case study on South Africa’s
Nedbank Insurance (page 12), the world’s first insurer to support
complex products across life insurance, commercial lines, and
personal lines on a single, integrated platform.
We have two big announcements: Bank Yahav in Israel has gone
live on TCS BaNCS for its entire operations, and Mercantile Bank in
South Africa has deployed TCS BaNCS Digital for retail and business
banking clients.
Plus, we have two exciting product announcements to share: TCS
BaNCS on the Cloud (see pages 22-27) with applications that include
core banking, capital markets, and corporate actions; our new
blockchain platform Quartz (see page 28); and TCS BaNCS Digital
Application Development kit (see page 30).
Finally, we are pleased to welcome our new leadership team,
Venkat and Vivek (“V2”) whom we hope you will have the pleasure to
meet at upcoming events, and in these pages (turn back to page 2)
as they share their vision for the decades to come.
Until next time…
Dennis Roman
Editor-in-Chief and CMO
TCS Financial Solutions
Tata Consultancy Services
+1 561 865 3339 office
+1 954 806 6660 cell
+1 561 865 3388 fax
http://sites.tcs.com/tcsbancs/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketingasitshouldbedone
CUSTOMER STORIES 6 London Mutual Credit Union
Full-service credit union streamlines operations and expands product lineup
10 Community Savings Bank Association
Bank-in-a-box allows entrepreneurs to start their own community banks
12 Nedbank InsuranceIndustry first combines personal lines, commercial lines, and life insurance on single platform
18 China Success StoriesQinghai Rural Credit Union, PSBC Consumer Finance Company, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank
36 Bank YahavIsraeli bank goes live on TCS BaNCS Universal Banking for banking, securities, and payments
37 Mercantile Bank UnitedSouth African business bank provides omni-channel experience to SMBs using TCS BaNCS Digital
NEw SOLUTIONS 22 Core Banking on the Cloud for U.S. Financial Institutions
Future-ready solution places community banks and credit unions in the technology vanguard
24 Agility in the Capital MarketsA guide to building a more competitive and responsive business platform
26 Flexibility in Corporate Actions
Enable new business models at any scale with TCS BaNCS for Corporate Actions on the Cloud
28 TCS Launches Quartz™ Generation for Blockchain technology
30 Apps for AllBuild mobile and online apps that work with any core banking solution using App Development kit (ADk)
5
About TCS Financial Solutions TCS Financial Solutions is a strategic business unit of Tata Consultancy Services. Dedicated to providing business application solutions to financial institutions globally, TCS Financial Solutions has compiled a comprehensive product portfolio under the brand name of TCS BaNCS. Our mission is to provide best-of-breed solutions that drive growth, reduce costs, mitigate risk, and offer a faster speed to market for our customers. TCS Financial Solutions delivers state-of-the-art software solutions for the banking, insurance and capital markets industries worldwide. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com/bancs
About Tata Consultancy Services LTD (TCS)Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty noother firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPS,infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model™, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 387,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 45 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $17.6 billion for year ended March 31, 2017 and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and the NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com.
Copyright © 2017, TCS Financial Solutions. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced without the written permission from the editor. TCS BaNCS newsletter is provided to clients and prospects on a regular basis. TCS Financial Solutions disclaims all warranties, whether expressed or implied. In no event will TCS Financial Solutions be liable for any damages on any information provided within the magazine. The information is provided to outline TCS BaNCS general product direction. The editorial is to be used for general information purposes. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for TCS Financial Solutions products remains at the sole discretion of TCS Financial Solutions.
From its inception, TCS BaNCS newsletter has been printed on paper from environmentally responsible sources.
6 10
contents12
INSIGHTS2 Anywhere, Anytime … Anyone
Anticipating the development of a powerful ecosystem for financial services
34 Optimizing the Financial Services Industry
Q&A with S. Sambamurthy, Head, Uk & Europe, TCS Financial Solutions
NEwS AND EVENTS38 FT-TCS BaNCS Financial Leaders Dinner Forum
Photos from panel discussion on cloud computing
39 IFX ForumIFX Forum Names New Secretary from TCS; TCS Joins IFX Forum’s Open APIs Working Group
40 TCS BaNCS Customer ForumAttendees of the 9th Annual TCS BaNCS Customer Forum
42 EventsCorpActions 2017, photos from recent events, and upcoming events
6
bank
ing
London Mutual Credit Union
Annual Report and Audited Accounts of
London Mutual Credit Union LimitedAnnual Report and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 30th September 2016
7
TCS BaNCS on the Cloud streamlines operations and expands product lineup for UK’s premier full-service credit unionBy Nicholas Searle, Uk Banking Business Development, TCS Financial Solutions
tThe Uk has about 390 credit unions whose members save together and lend
to each other at an attractive rate of interest. Unlike their US and Australian
counterparts, the customers of Uk credit unions typically maintain their current
(or checking) accounts separately, at a traditional bank.
As one of only a handful of Uk credit unions offering current account
products, LMCU customers have no need to do banking business elsewhere.
With their full-service offering, LMCU supports the payroll services for several
large organizations, including NHS hospitals, local authorities, and most recently,
the Ministry of Defence (MOD). LMCU membership is also open to the broader
community, including part-time employees and self-employed individuals.
As of two years ago, LMCU ran separate applications for current accounts,
savings and loan accounts, and online banking. These disparate systems made
it time-consuming and inefficient for the employees to administer accounts,
and it was equally burdensome for customers to track their own finances. “Our
previous current account systems only provided the previous night’s balance,”
said Lakshman (“Lucky”) Chandrasekera, CEO of LMCU. “Every morning, we’d
receive loads of calls from members for balance inquiries.”
To improve efficiency and boost levels of customer service, LMCU began the
search for a new, integrated solution. “We also wanted our system to be futuristic,
including a full range of new services and products,” says Chandrasekera.
In mid-2015, LMCU began to evaluate multiple providers. After an extensive
search process, LMCU signed with TCS in August 2016. “Positive client references,
plus the TCS team’s extensive knowledge of the banking marketplace, helped
contribute to the decision,” says Chandrasekera.
For the transition, LMCU appointed a program manager who was aided
by departmental managers and additional personnel for testing and quality
assurance. TCS BaNCS maintained two people on-site, who were supported
by over a dozen off-shore resources. “We had a good team on both sides,” says
Chandrasekera. “We always maintained a good working relationship with the TCS
team, and whatever challenges we had, we came up with solutions straightaway.”
Deployment onto the cloud-based core banking solution from TCS BaNCS,
including data migration from two legacy systems, commenced in September
2016. The solutions for current accounts, loans, and online banking went live
in November 2016.
bank
ing
Lakshman “Lucky” Chandrasekera,
CEO, LMCU
LMCU serves members of the military and the
UK Ministry of Defence.
8
ExPANDED OFFERINGSCustomers have already experienced a huge difference following the deployment.
With text message balance inquiries, customers no longer need to call the branch first
thing in the morning. “We’ve streamlined the administration of the credit union,” says
Chandrasekera. “Instead of doing manual tasks, staff can now attend to members and help
them in ways that we couldn’t do before.”
Customizable text messaging also guides the day-to-day finances of LMCU’s members.
“If members don’t have enough money to pay their bills via direct debit, we send them a
warning the day before using text messaging, giving them time to make a deposit to cover
their bills and reduce their banking cost,” says Chandrasekera.
Also, members can select to receive a text message after each ATM or point-of-sale transaction,
a service that acts as both a budgetary tool and an anti-fraud measure. “Our members have
found it incredibly useful to see their current account balance at any time,” says Chandrasekera.
LMCU continues to redefine the financial co-operative model in the Uk by offering
customers a broad range of integrated services. LMCU now offers five different kinds of
current account products suitable for different types of customers, and plans to launch an
expanded menu of banking services including mortgages, credit cards, and other products.
The TCS BaNCS team continues to work with LMCU to deliver upon the promise of credit
unions as a co-operative alternative to traditional banks. “My experience with the TCS team,
both here and offshore, has been extremely positive,” says Chandrasekera. “I see their team
here almost every day, staying as long as it is needed to solve any problems.”
“They’ve shown tremendous dedication and commitment, and that’s what makes them
unique.” n
AT A GLANCECompany
London Mutual Credit Union
Headquarters
London, United kingdom
Business Challenge
To improve efficiency and customer service with
a single solution for core banking, loans,
online banking, and new products.
Solution
TCS BaNCS on the Cloud
FAST FACTSLMCU was established in 1982
to provide services to employees of the
London Borough of Southwark.
LMCU has over £24 million in assets,
and over 25,000 member-owners
(September 2016).
9
Annual Report and Audited Accounts of
London Mutual Credit Union LimitedAnnual Report and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 30th September 2016
Staff can now attend to members and help them in ways that we couldn’t do before.“ ”
10
bank
ing
*Equivalent to U.S. “Main Street”
Bank branches along the “High Street”* of a typical British
community have become harder to find.
In the 1980s, most of the Uk’s community banks were bought
by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and RBS, which are collectively known
as the “Big Four,” or the “High Street” banks. Following the global
financial crisis, the Big Four were forced to trim back their
community branch networks considerably.
This has opened a significant market opportunity for those
willing to launch a community bank. Even in the digital age,
there’s still room for community-focused financial institutions
staffed by bankers with specific knowledge of local conditions.
Older generations still seek out branches for support on access
to digital services, community groups appreciate local support,
and small-to-medium-sized businesses place a high value on
having a local presence for depositing cash, opening a line of
credit, or taking out a loan.
The problem is that even the most ambitious entrepreneurs
face enormous hurdles in starting banks on their own. To open a
new bank, you need extensive knowledge of banking regulations
and ready access to experienced legal help. You need a complete
set of business plans and financial projections for regulators and
investors. You need to figure out how to manage a wide array of
financial and operational risks.
Those have proven to be near-unsurmountable obstacles –
until now.
BUILDING A BANk-IN-A-BOxTo support entrepreneurs in community banking, Oxford-based
Community Savings Bank Association (CSBA) has completed
the assembly of a full set of contracts, standard operating
procedures, and technology solutions required to start up a
new bank. “Our ‘bank-in-a-box’ project includes all the systems,
products, governance, and compliance you need to put bank
branches back into towns that have lost them,” says James M.
Moore, Chairman of CSBA. “If a community wants its own bank,
all they need is the money, the people, and the drive.”
By lowering the barriers to entry in community banking, CSBA
will help Uk communities to regain what was lost during the
consolidation and subsequent contraction of the Uk banking
industry. “People in fintech think that the whole world can be
run from an app,” adds Moore. “We’re going a different way. We
want to have physical branches, and local branch managers who
know the area.”
COMMUNITY SAVINGS BANk ASSOCIATION
CSBA aims to revitalize banking in UK communities By S. Sambamurthy, Head, Uk & Europe, TCS Financial Solutions
711
New community banks will be established as member-owned
financial institutions. These, in turn, will hold ownership stakes
in CSBA itself, leading to stronger governance and alignment of
interests between stakeholders.
CSBA’s “bank-in-a-box” will include a full range of physical
and operational systems for managing a community bank’s
branches, including teller equipment, safe deposit boxes, and
credit and debit card issuance equipment.
To support core banking along with a full range of customizable
financial products and services, CSBA will run a single solution:
TCS BaNCS on the Cloud.
The selection process considered not only technical
competence, but also ethics. CSBA insists that its member banks
maintain a shared sense of ethical values, and those expectations
also apply to its vendor relationships.
“We spoke with people who had used TCS in the past, whose
judgement we trusted,” says Moore. “Once we spent time talking
and getting to know each other, and seeing how TCS responded
to negotiations and requests, we found that it was an easy
working relationship.”
“TCS shows a genuine attempt to meet our needs,” Moore
adds.
HIGH STREET, REVISITEDEach CSBA member bank will be able to customize its core
banking services, pricing, products, and marketing to meet
customer demands. “Instead of each member bank having
to deploy a different solution, the core banking solution of
TCS BaNCS lets you create what you want using parameters,” says
Moore. “London may want one thing, Glasgow something else.”
The TCS BaNCS solution also includes online banking and
cross-platform mobile banking services that match or even
exceed the functionality of larger competitors. Community
banks will be poised to leapfrog the big banks with new
functionality that traditional banks would be hard-pressed to
replicate using their legacy systems. “You can do budgeting, or
payments on behalf of children and families,” says Moore. “That’s
one of the key attractions of TCS BaNCS – it already has highly
advanced functionality.”
To encourage communities to rebuild their own High Street
economies, CSBA is planning to build a demonstration branch in
a warehouse, showing prospective bank owners how they can
create a completely functional community bank without having
to assemble their own expertise and systems.
Already, the first prospective CSBA member bank is underway
to launch a new community bank in London. The bank’s yearlong
charter approval process is on target for approval and launch by
the end of 2018. “The key is to make the first one successful,” says
Moore. “That’s the best advertisement.” n
FAST FACTSl Regions with the most bank branch closures
per capita: Wales, south-west England, Scotland
l Uk branch closures (2015-2016): Over 1,000
l Uk branch closures (2017, Jan-Feb): 423
Sources: Which?; Financial Times; The Mail
AT A GLANCECompany: Community Savings Bank Association
Headquarters: Oxford, United kingdom
Business Challenge: To support a Uk-wide network
of customer-owned regional banks
Solution: TCS BaNCS on the Cloud
COMMUNITY SAVINGS BANk ASSOCIATION
CSBA aims to revitalize banking in UK communities By S. Sambamurthy, Head, Uk & Europe, TCS Financial Solutions
12
NEDBANk insurAnce
In an industry first, Nedbank Insurance combines personal lines, commercial lines and
life insurance products on a single TCS BaNCS instance.By Susanta Das, Client Partner-Nedbank Insurance, TCS Financial Solutions
insu
ranc
e
13
Nedbank Insurance offers personal lines, commercial lines and life insurance to Nedbank’s
(Retail and Business) Banking clients. As a bancassurer, Nedbank Insurance focuses mainly on sales
through a number of bank channels, but is run like any other insurance company in terms of
onboarding, policy administration, client servicing, claims management and regulations.
Until recently, Nedbank’s insurance businesses were run and capitalized separately:
Nedgroup Insurance Company (NedIC) offered personal and commercial lines to bank clients;
and Nedgroup Life (NGL) offered life insurance policies aligned with banking products.
nedgroup insurance companyNedIC was originally formed to embed non-life insurance into banking products so that, for example,
a client who takes out a home loan through Nedbank can buy property insurance, or a client who
takes out a car loan can add warranty options, tire and rim insurance, and other value-added products.
Initially, NedIC was run using an inhouse policy administration and a third-party claims system.
These disparate systems ran on separate platforms with only a basic level of connection, and
therefore efficient operations was difficult and expansion almost impossible. “We needed an IT
platform that would allow us to go beyond homeowners’ cover for home loans and to offer personal
and commercial lines to our banking clients,” says Indranil Bandyopadhyay, Head of Business
Information Technology Enablement at Nedbank Insurance.
Through a request for proposal NedIC narrowed down the field to three technology vendors. “We
wanted to achieve our transformation requirements and meet our cost targets,” says Bandyopadhyay.
“We also considered whether these vendors had done large transformation programs and complex
migrations before to prove that they can execute the project.”
In 2010 NedIC chose TCS as its solution partner and, shortly thereafter, started to deploy
TCS BaNCS as a single solution to deal with the policy administration, claims and servicing in respect
of a full range of personal and commercial lines.
By the end of 2013 NedIC had successfully migrated its clients onto TCS BaNCS, and expanded its
offerings to include personal-accident and hospital plan products.
As far as that initial scope was concerned, the project was a success. Due to legacy business
arrangements, Nedbank is yet to take full advantage of the product range enabled by TCS BaNCS.
“Because we initially didn’t have the systems, people or process to do it ourselves, we entered into
arrangements with third-party partners for several non-life insurance products,” says Bandyopadhyay.
“Once those contract terms end, we’ll be able to launch even more products ourselves.”
“Previously, technology was a constraint, but now we can offer any product we want across the
full spectrum of non-life insurance offerings – from sales, fulfillment and endorsement to claims –
with no restrictions from a technology perspective,” adds Bandyopadhyay. “Having TCS BaNCS is a
fantastic enabler for the business.”
“ ”Having TCS BaNCS is a fantastic enabler for the business.
Indranil Bandyopadhyay, Head of Business
Information Technology Enablement,
Nedbank Insurance
14
insu
ranc
enedgroup life Assurance companyNGL started out by offering life insurance products intended to cover the bank’s loan exposure.
For example, it might be a requirement of a home loan agreement that the borrower must cede
a life insurance policy. “The bank might not lend money to someone without having a guarantee
that it will be able to recover its capital asset in the event of death or disability,” says Steven
Goodrich, Head of Technology at Nedbank Wealth.
Other life insurance products were added to the offering as client needs were aligned with retail
banking opportunities. For example, a Nedbank current or savings account may have an embedded
funeral policy from NGL, allowing a beneficiary to receive certain benefits when an account holder dies.
The life insurance business started in the 1970s with an inhouse policy administration system
managed by an inhouse development team. By 2010 only a few people knew how to keep the
legacy Unisys platform system up and running. “Research suggested that there were about 20 active
developers in South Africa who knew how to program on this platform, and many of them were at our
life insurance company,” says Goodrich. “We were faced with the risk of running out of developers, and
it was taking us too long to move forward and meet the business demand.”
That’s when Nedbank Insurance made a bold decision. “In 2014 we decided to merge our personal,
commercial and life insurance businesses under one brand, namely Nedbank Insurance,” says Goodrich.
The idea was to create a single business and it made sense to consider a single system to run both
sides of the business. “The ideal scenario was to have one policy administration system for the entire
(insurance) organization,” says Goodrich.
The only problem with having a policy administration system covering life and non-life insurance
was that it had never been done before. “Analysts said it was a good idea, and that many people were
looking into it,” says Bandyopadhyay. “Maybe because of the risk involved, or the fear of the unknown,
nobody had successfully moved forward on any significant scale.”
Someone has to be first, and Nedbank Insurance made the move. “We understood the complexity
and the risks, but we were confident that it was the right way to do things – allowing our technology
solutions to enable a client-centered business model,” says Bandyopadhyay.
The drawbacks of having different systems for separate insurance products were well understood
throughout Nedbank Insurance. “Because of the various business models and third parties involved,
it was difficult to have a single view of the client,” says Bandyopadhyay. “That caused problems from
both a revenue opportunity and servicing perspective.”
For bankers, it was increasingly difficult to meet know-your-client (kYC) regulations, which were
intensifying in scope. Also, it was a challenge to maintain data accuracy across systems, even for
something as basic as updating personal details. “When we updated records on one system, we had to
remember to update several other systems,” says Bandyopadhyay. “We wanted standardized processes
across life and non-life processes.”
To move forward, Nedbank Insurance decided to deploy TCS BaNCS for the life insurance business
in 2014. “Our relationship with TCS from the earlier successful non-life-insurance project contributed
to us deciding to expand TCS BaNCS for the life insurance benefits as well,” says Goodrich. “This time,
we didn’t even require a request for proposal or information – TCS was the perfect partner to continue
our business transformation journey.”
Rather than trying to migrate the Nedgroup Life policies onto the existing TCS BaNCS deployment
for Nedbank Insurance, it made more sense to start by running two TCS BaNCS instances in parallel. The
implementation of the second instance of TCS BaNCS for the life business and the initial migration was
completed in 2016. “Nedbank has now adopted TCS BaNCS as the enterprise standard for insurance
throughout the group,” says Goodrich.
15
Breaking new groundOnce both sides of the business were running on TCS BaNCS, the next step was to work through the
implications of a business model combining life and non-life insurance within a single policy administration
system. “We spent quite some time with TCS working through the details of how a single solution could
work,” says Goodrich.
The overall concept is to improve client experience using blended insurance and banking requirements.
“It’s not unusual for an insurance company to offer life, personal and commercial policies to clients,” says
Goodrich. “What is unique is being able to combine benefits from both types of insurance into a single policy.
Once we’ve merged our policy administration systems, we’ll shift our thinking and focus to achieve this!”
For example, if a client is involved in a car accident, there could be several insurance products at play –
auto insurance covering damage to the vehicle; personal-accident insurance covering liability; life insurance
covering death or disability; and perhaps a hospital cash benefit after that. “From a client experience, you
shouldn’t have to deal with all these policies separately, especially while you’re suffering from a traumatic
event,” says Goodrich. “With life and non-life benefits combined under one policy, we will be able to create a
seamless client experience.”
It turned out that the technology was the easy part. “Perhaps it’s because we have TCS as a partner, but
we’re finding that the technology side is less complicated than getting the business ready to manage a single
insurance policy,” says Goodrich.
In the business, employees have to take on new roles to support products for which they may not have
experience. Two separate teams have to come together as a single cohesive client service unit. Product leads
have to think about both sides of the business for the first time. “Everyone sees it as a massive technology
change, but it’s actually a business transformation enabled by technology,” says Goodrich. “The business
change is far greater than the technology change.”
Everyone sees it as a massive technology change, but it’s actually a business transformation enabled by technology.“ ”Steven Goodrich, Head of Technology at Nedbank Wealth
16
insu
ranc
e
A true partnershipWith these considerations in mind, TCS and Nedbank worked together to make the concept a reality. In
April 2017 Nedbank merged its two separate TCS BaNCS instances onto a single instance. “This is the first
time in the world that we know of where a life and non-life business will run on one instance within a
single system,” says Bandyopadhyay. “It was a journey worth going on, and a risk worth taking, with a huge
potential upside.”
“We knew what we wanted to get out of it, and we had confidence in our partnership with TCS,” adds
Bandyopadhyay.
The flexibility of TCS BaNCS made it possible to move forward on the vision of a single solution covering
both sides of the insurance business. “Most other insurance companies are attached to technology partners
that offer only one side of the insurance coin,” says Goodrich. “We were very fortunate to have had a partner
that enabled us to move from separate personal, commercial and life offerings to a full-service insurance
offering.”
More importantly, the relationship between Nedbank and TCS established the foundation for taking the
leap into the unknown. “TCS really understood what we were trying to do, and put together the technology
to support our vision,” adds Goodrich. “I don’t think we would have achieved that with anyone else.”
“What makes this a successful partnership is the relationship between people, not only between
companies. We have mutual trust and respect, and that helps people to go beyond the call of duty to
make our efforts successful,” says Bandyopadhyay.
Part of being a trusted partner is feeling free to speak up, and Nedbank executives encouraged the
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OTO
Johannesburg, South Africa
17
TCS team to voice their opinions as equals. “Instead of just doing what we ask them to do, they would
challenge us,” says Goodrich. “If they didn’t think the solution on the table was the best one, they would
help craft a solution rather than just accept our views of how it should work. And we’ve seen the benefit
of that – time and time again.”
original opportunities For Nedbank, the early benefits of the combined insurance solution will be realized through operational
efficiencies based on a single view of the client. Among these benefits are the following:
l Frontline branch bankers can more easily cross-sell and upsell across a range of products.
l Risk managers can more easily build combined financial models.
l Digital and mobile channels can be rolled out quickly, without having to integrate with multiple
systems across the organization.
Also, Nedbank will – in time – offer a greater range of traditional life, standalone personal and
commercial insurance products to its banking clients with the impending runoff of its third-party
partnership agreements.
More benefits will come about with the expansion of the product line to include insurance benefits
that track client lifecycle events. “Now that we no longer have IT constraints, our creative opportunities
are flowing,” says Bandyopadhyay. “New opportunities and new possibilities have opened up, and
we are now able to become truly client-centered.” n
ISTOCkPH
OTO
AT A GLANCECompany
Nedbank Insurance
Head Office
Johannesburg, South Africa
Business Challenge
To gain a single client view with efficient operations
across life and non-life insurance offerings.
Solution
Insurance solution of TCS BaNCS.
FAST FACTSNedbank’s history goes back to the early 19th century
with the establishment of the Cape of Good Hope Bank in 1831.
Following successive branding and structural changes,
from Nederlandsche Bank voor Zuid-Africa to Netherlands Bank of
South Africa (NBSA) and to Nedcor Group in the 1980s,
Nedbank Group was formed in 2003.
Nedbank Group is now one of the top banks in South Africa.
chinA success stories
18
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anal
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chinA success stories
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2x Transactions, 2x Accuracy, 4x Product Offerings at Qinghai Rural Credit UnionQinghai Rural Credit Union (QHRCU) is headquartered in Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province in far
western China. Established in 2005, QHRCU consists of 30 separate credit unions, each run as an independent
financial institution.
In July 2014, QHRCU kicked off a program to deploy a centralized core banking system as part of a broader
five-year plan to deploy leading technology at China’s rural credit unions.
Based on the modern technology architecture of TCS BaNCS and its strong history of successful
deployments in China and Greater China, TCS BaNCS was selected to power QHRCU’s core banking
solution. The implementation took less than 10 months, and the new system successfully went live, as
planned, in July 2015.
On the front end, QHRCU now provides its customers with a friendlier user experience. Also, as part of
a customer-centric business model, QHRCU has significantly widened its range of products. With the
parameter-driven product configuration tools within TCS BaNCS, QHRCU now has 131 personal deposit and
loan products, up from 30 products available through the legacy system.
The increased range of products has also brought with it a significant increase in transaction volume, and TCS
BaNCS supports the demanding performance standards for QHRCU’s growing presence in the marketplace.
In the year following implementation, average daily transactions went from 150,000 daily transactions to
over 280,000. Even with this near-doubling in volume, the error rate has been cut in half. Previously, manual
intervention was required for 1 in 400 transactions, and this has been reduced to just 1 in 800.
Also, in contrast to the legacy system, which required two hours of downtime in the evening, TCS BaNCS
supports 24-hour operations across all electronic channels.
Behind the scenes, TCS BaNCS provides QHRCU management with high quality data to support business
intelligence and risk management applications.
By delivering advanced banking technology to rural customers, the deployment of TCS BaNCS has been a
significant milestone in QHRCU’s five-year plan to achieve improved economic development in the region.
19
TCS BaNCS deployments at Qinghai Rural Credit Union, Postal Savings Bank of China Consumer Finance Company,
and Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank
By Brent Zhu, Head of China & Greater China, TCS Financial Solutions
inte
rvie
wba
nkin
g
Six-Month Rollout at PSBC Consumer Finance CompanyPSBC Consumer Finance Company Ltd. (PSBC CFC), based in Guangzhou, was formed as a
new consumer finance business by majority-owner Postal Savings Bank China (PSBC) and
other investors.
PSBC CFC received a business license from the China Banking Regulatory Commission
(CBRC) in April 2015. For PSBC CFC to meet its targeted launch date of November 2015, the
entire back-end deployment of a consumer finance platform had to be completed ahead
of the launch.
To execute upon its expansive business vision, PSBC CFC selected TCS BaNCS to deploy
an integrated service platform in support a wide range of fast, efficient, and high-quality
consumer finance solutions. The scope of the deployment included customer information,
deposits, loans, and payments.
The TCS BaNCS deployment was completed ahead of schedule in September 2015, and
PSBC CFC opened to the public, as planned, on November 19, 2015, with a wide range
of consumer finance services, including personal consumer loans, advisory services, and
related transactions.
With the launch, PSBC CFC became the first licensed financial institution to provide both
online and offline individual consumer finance services in China. In this capacity, PSBC CFC
has acted as a crucial catalyst to increased consumer spending in China’s fast-growing
domestic economy.
One of the cornerstones to success has been the ability to develop new products
based on customer requests. Throughout its operations, PSBC CFC seeks out constructive
information from consumers, and turns the best ideas into new products through the
flexible and parameter-based configuration options of TCS BaNCS.
This level of flexibility has aided the rapid expansion of the business. Already, PSBC CFC
has more than 150,000 customers and 50 third-party businesses using its consumer finance
mobile app, which delivers an extensive range of consumer-oriented financial services.
With TCS contributing technology and business expertise, PSBC CFC has achieved its
vision and its brand promise to the customer: “Credit and Happiness Shared by You.”
TCS BaNCS enables PSBC CFC to turn ideas into new products at an extremely rapid
pace. This approach has given the organization a significant competitive advantage in the
China’s burgeoning consumer finance industry.
20
$200 million savings at Shanghai Rural Commercial BankShanghai Rural Commercial Bank (SRCB), established in Shanghai on August 25th, 2005, is one of the largest rural commercial
banks in China with registered capital over RMB 5 billion (USD $730 million), 390 branches and more than 6,000 employees.
SRCB seeks to bolster Shanghai’s position as an international financial center and to accelerate the integration of urban
and rural development. To further these aims, SRCB has developed a strategy in recent years to become an exemplary
regional bank focused on customer convenience.
The strategy called for significant improvements in terms of corporate governance, along with adoption of a modern
organizational structure, updated business functions, strong capital buffers, advanced management practices, superior risk
management, and remarkable achievements. As part of this future-facing vision, SRCB has been highly motivated to train its
staff to become more knowledgeable, while also innovating to build a customer-first convenience bank.
In 2011, SRCB took a major step to establish a solid foundation for its development strategy by seeking out a new-
generation banking system to replace its legacy solutions. The search led to TCS BaNCS, which was selected as the core
banking solution at the center of SRBC’s new architecture.
The deployment involved 88 IT systems implementation projects, which took two years to complete. In June 2013, the
new IT system went live with a smooth transition from the legacy systems.
The IT renovation program led by TCS enabled SRCB to save an estimated RBM 1.4 billion (USD $200 million) in operating
costs, which immediately contributed to increased net profitability of the bank.
The TCS BaNCS deployment also contributed to the growth of the organization. Since the launch, SRCB has been able to
introduce new financial products and services, quickly and economically, leading to a rapid increase in customer assets for
the bank.
In the back office, TCS BaNCS successfully supports critical transactions such as Treasury bond sales, quarterly interest
settlements, final year-end settlements, and business peaks during the Spring Festival. In addition, with the new solution SRCB
improved its disaster recovery system and disaster planning efforts, further enhancing the stability of the overall organization.
TCS BaNCS has also proven to be a stable technology support platform for business development, product innovation,
and transformation of the entire bank. Throughout the province of Shanghai, SRCB has immense needs to build solutions to
meet the demands for new rural banks, and to support business development with rural customers.
TCS BaNCS supported our objectives of having fast, effective and economic
product renovation, delivering strengthened financial services capabilities, and improving customer services.
These efforts have been a key driving force toward our goal of becoming a more
competitive rural commercial bank in China.
“”Mr. Zhang Qingming, IT Director, SRCB
21
bank
ing
the U.S. banking marketplace has unmatched variety,
with almost 6,000 credit unions, over 5,000 commercial banks
and over 800 savings institutions. Community banks and credit
unions continue to play a unique and important role in lending
to U.S. agricultural, residential, and small business markets.
Nevertheless, the market share for community banks and credit
unions has been in decline over the past several years.
Part of the problem is that community banks and credit
unions have been slow to respond to the rise of digital banking,
and most offer just basic, undifferentiated online services.
We believe that U.S. community banks and credit unions
have been underserved by their legacy core vendors. When
it comes to digital and online services, vendors’ offerings have
fallen behind broader technology advances, preventing small
banks from being able to grow and expand into new markets
and customer segments.
The top U.S. core banking vendors share similar technology
architectures from decades of roll-up acquisitions. Their
offerings consist of hybrid core systems accompanied by
separate solutions for channels, CRM, and marketing, all glued
together with an enterprise integration layer. Even when
a bank leases a single set of solutions ticking all the boxes,
behind the scenes it’s a collection of individual components
built using development teams at different times, and different
data structures and tools. Although sold as a bundle, the
components don’t feel or behave like a single product. These
systems reached their limits years ago, and are failing to keep
pace with growing demands of the marketplace.
rAdicAl reconfigurAtionFive years from now, it’s going to be a very different marketplace.
Industry change is imminent from fintech companies with
billions in venture capital, and from large Internet companies
entering the financial sector.
Also, not just the larger banks, but also smaller banks need to
comply with hundreds of ever-changing regulations pertaining
to anti-money laundering, risk capital (e.g. Basel III and IV),
and other areas. Although many of these regulations are still
evolving, stringent deadlines have often already been set.
To be ready for whatever may happen over the next five
years, a solution purchased today needs to be capable of
radical reconfiguration.
COrE BaNKINgon the cloudfOr U.S. fINaNCIaL INSTITUTIONS
Future-ready solution places community banks and credit unions in the technology vanguard
By R Subramanian, Program Manager, Core Banking on the Cloud,
TCS Financial Solutions
22
Community banks and credit unions need to be ready for:
l Personalized, differentiated, and customer-centric
services to retain customers throughout their financial
lives, including wealth management, trust services, and
advanced payment solutions
l Continuous innovation to stay ahead of competition using
technology
l Publishing APIs that permit customers to integrate financial
data directly into their own value chains using third-party
services.
l Competition based on analytics driven by banking
transactions and external sources
l Location-based services through smartphones that analyze
real-time data from smart devices through 5G telecom
networks
customer-centric core BAnKingCloud technology provides an opportunity for community banks
and credit unions to embrace newer technologies without the high
cost of infrastructure and integration. Now that solution providers
have received the go-ahead from regulators, small and medium
banks are poised to lead the way toward cloud-based core banking.
To address the needs of Tier 3 and Tier 4 banks, TCS is launching
the core banking solution of TCS BaNCS as a cloud offering with
a pay-as-you-go, buy-what-you-need operating model. This gives
community banks and credit unions in the U.S. powerful new
opportunities for building customer-ready solutions and adapting
to rapid change through a managed IT infrastructure.
TCS BaNCS offers a complete menu of functions, allowing
financial institutions to select from any number of individual
components, sub-components, or functions of the TCS
BaNCS solution. This allows easy integration between existing
technology capabilities and new capabilities, whether for
deposits, commercial lending, consumer lending, CRM, or other
areas. Without having to perform a full migration, organizations
can start slowly by supplementing their existing IT footprint
with targeted new capabilities.
The solution is also integrated with market interfaces
including domestic and international payments gateways, and
is compliant with relevant regulations.
As a cloud-based solution, TCS BaNCS requires no investment
in specialized hardware or databases. This means that bank IT
and operations staff can be relieved of the entire burden of
maintaining upgrades, installing patches, and otherwise keeping
a complex IT infrastructure in full working order. A bank or credit
union can run its entire operations through TCS BaNCS as a single,
integrated solution. This approach allows financial institutions
to achieve a highly advantageous cost structure while retaining
complete flexibility over product and service offerings.
TCS BaNCS gives bankers a 360-degree view of transactions,
activities and portfolios, resulting in a better understanding of
how to design, build, price and bundle products and services
with the greatest value to the end customer. Also, TCS BaNCS
provides a full set of APIs and microservices to support third-
party service integration and interoperability. Anticipating the
challenges of a fintech-enabled world, TCS BaNCS makes it
easy for financial institutions to delegate third-party access to
account and transaction data, or to allow customers to embed
payment authorizations into their everyday workflows.
getting closer to customersCommunity banks and credit unions have always had the
advantage of being close to their customers. That’s how they’ve
thrived over the decades. The cloud offering of TCS BaNCS fully
supports these substantial strengths through a low-cost, low-
risk approach to meeting the core banking needs of customers.
In addition, the flexibility of the cloud offering of TCS BaNCS
makes it possible for community banks and credit unions to
deliver a full range of services that are equal to or better than
competing services from big banks. Now, the cloud customers
of TCS BaNCS will have immediate access to the best advances
in the banking world. Instead of having to be a slow follower of
big bank innovations, community banks and credit unions will
find themselves in the forefront of innovations in cybersecurity,
blockchain and new digital channels.
TCS BaNCS also supports shared-cost business models,
allowing bank or credit union cooperatives to collaborate on
shared services using the TCS BaNCS cloud offering. Through this
approach, even the smallest financial institutions will be able to
offer a full range of services including instant online account
opening, omnichannel banking, location-based services, and
API connectivity. Furthermore, bankers will be able to decide,
based on powerful CRM and analytics tools, in which areas they
should grow next.
All it takes is the vision to start a transition to the core banking
solution of TCS BaNCS, now available on the cloud. n
23
capi
tal m
arke
ts
speed is no longer just about algorithms or executions.
It’s also about being first to market with new data sets,
external services, or market-ready APIs.
For financial institutions, the key to competitive
differentiation is the ability to deploy, in one day, something
that might take competitors six months to build and rollout.
To attain that combination of speed and flexibility, financial
institutions should start with a blank sheet of paper to come
up with an idealized answer to the question: “What’s the lowest
and optimal cost for running the business to our standards?”
Figure out the optimized minimum cost to support your
entire enterprise. Pin that to the wall, because that’s precisely
what you need to target.
You won’t get there by successive rounds of ever more
challenging budget cuts that dance around the real problem
— banks can simply no longer afford to run legacy operating
models organized by line of business with separate, inefficient
resources for transaction banking, securities services,
investment banking, asset management, and so on.
Nor can you reach the optimized cost model by outsourcing
selective non-core components of single divisions. While
division-level outsourcing does deliver short-term cost
reductions, that approach can come at the expense of business
agility. Relatively quickly, the impact of the cost reductions
hits a ceiling. Then, to achieve further cost reduction targets,
upgrades are often delayed or shelved. This creates a domino
effect and leads to future downstream investment hurdles,
frozen levels of automation in operations, and reduced agility
in meeting clients’ needs – all of which negatively impact net
growth.
An optimized operating and cost model has two essential
and necessary characteristics: First, it’s conceived as a single
enterprise solution; and second, rather than a fragmented
model of outsourcing, it builds upon an integrated range of
outsourcing solutions, covering all business units.
With an enterprise solution, core components can be shared
across lines of business, eliminating wasteful duplication
and enabling powerful new functionality such as a single
view of a portfolio across all financial instruments. Instead of
having multiple operating models and infrastructures, firms
can establish one set of technologies and a single operating
infrastructure to run the entire business.
With an integrated range of outsourcing solutions,
organizations can move non-core activities and their
associated capital expenses into cloud-based managed
services that directly align predictable and variable operating
expenses with scalable revenue models. Furthermore, a
significant portion of commodity activities, e.g. scrubbing
Agility in the CAPITAL mArKets
A guide to building a more competitive and responsive business platform
By Giles Elliott, Head of Business Development, Capital Markets, TCS Financial Solutions
24
market data feeds, can be offloaded into mutualized solutions
with software and infrastructure shared by multiple industry
participants.
As an added benefit, what is left for a firm’s in-house IT
development team will be those higher-value areas that deliver
greater competitive differentiation. Through the optimized
cost model, the CIO can focus on strategic initiatives, easily
integrate new solutions into bank operations, and achieve
rapid time-to-market for new product rollouts – all with lower
operational risk.
To achieve this vision of an optimized cost model, firms won’t
have to do everything all at once. Even so, it is critical to establish
a target operating model, and then work backwards from this to
develop the right roadmap to achieve this outcome.
It’s also possible to move quickly. We’ve been working with
one client who wants to go from a completely fragmented
business-by-business operating model into a full enterprise
integrated BPaaS model covering software, Cloud, IT Support
and Business Processing.
prioritizing Agility Agility is virtually impossible to achieve with fragmented
outsourcing structures. By contrast, integrated outsourcing
models enable financial institutions to prioritize agility, both in
terms of products and in operations. With the right models, firms
can achieve ongoing total cost reduction as well as the agility
to drive revenue streams with customer-centric solutions. By
bundling capabilities together, these new operating structures
deliver the agility required by new business imperatives.
An integrated outsourcing model follows ever more
progressive operating constructs, with each generating
incremental value and building on gains solidified in earlier
steps.
cApitAl mArKets integrAted solutions (cmis)software-as-a-service (saas)
model: Migration to an integrated software solution in the
cloud under a SaaS arrangement, where the software vendor
provides continuous silent upgrades under a variable, but
fully integrated, cost model.
Benefits: Cloud SaaS models can deliver product agility and
enable far stronger third-party product integration than
on-premise solutions, while also reducing traditional costs
associated with fragmented models.
Business processes as a service (Bpaas)model: Integrating business processing solutions with a SaaS
solution yields the BPaaS model, which supports common,
industry-standard operations’ models with highly nimble
software deployment and a continuous stream of control
and automation enhancements.
Benefits: BPaaS can drive the most significant shift in value
through a single enterprise solution. The model drives
business value by identifying synergies between operations
and technology, and better aligns incentives for incremental
automation.
mutualized Bpaasmodel: Couples the benefits of BPaaS with the cost-sharing
economies of a multi-client business model.
Benefits: Mutualized solutions will emerge among firms that
have reached the BPaaS model. Following a necessary period
of alignment on best practices in operations and controls,
the incremental benefits of moving beyond BPaaS will be
substantial, providing ongoing opportunities for unit cost
improvements.
Begin your journeyIt’s a complex journey to move from a collection of separate in-
house systems to an enterprise solution run as a cloud-based
managed service supported by mutualized solutions. That’s
why TCS has established Capital Markets Integrated Solutions
(CMIS) with the playbook, roadmap, and necessary protocols
to partner with clients in seamlessly migrating to progressively
higher-impact business models.
With cost structure that can be continually optimized,
firms will be positioned for an unprecedented level of
competitiveness. Instead of worrying about how to cut costs
from legacy systems, firms can empower their technology
teams to deliver new solutions to their customers at a far
faster pace than had ever been possible before. Also, firms will
automatically benefit from the latest innovations delivered
throughout the year as regular enhancements to TCS BaNCS.
By relying on the demonstrated proficiency of TCS, both
as the top provider in the financial services industry and as
a global BPO firm recognized for excellence in delivery, firms
can achieve the optimized cost model to support a business
in today’s challenging capital markets, while still retaining
ultimate flexibility to innovate.
At TCS, we realize that firms are going to consider any radical
change to their business models as a risky endeavor. Given our
proven experience at managing complex change in support
of innovation-led financial institutions throughout the capital
markets, firms of any size can take assurance in our extensive
capabilities and unwavering commitment to your success. n
25
corp
orat
e ac
tion
s
small-to-mid-sized custodians, asset servicing firms and broker-dealers are discovering
new opportunities to deliver specialized, global services to their customers. All they need is the
right operational business model.
Larger capital markets firms have a built-in competitive advantage due to economies of scale in
back-office processing. Most financial instruments involve a complex set of servicing requirements
for corporate actions, which consist of scheduled and unscheduled communications between
the issuers and holders of securities, including interest payments, stock splits, and proxy votes.
Due to the complexities involved, only the larger capital markets firms have the scale to invest
in the required technology, process automation, back-office staff, and regulatory expertise for
corporate actions processing.
By contrast, smaller capital markets firms tend to rely upon manual processes. Often, that’s
just a simple spreadsheet managed by a small operations staff. The problem with that simple
approach is that mistakes are expensive. For example, if you fail to give timely notification about
a voluntary transaction, you may be liable for penalties and damages based on the customer’s
missed opportunity. Or, if you make a computational error, the reputational damage may lead to
the loss of a major customer to a more-trusted competitor.
Traditionally, the only way for smaller firms to improve their corporate actions processing has
been to deploy an on-premise corporate actions solution at a total cost of ownership (TCO) too
difficult to justify for relatively low transaction volumes.
in corporAteACTIONS
Enable new business models at any scale with TCS BaNCS for Corporate Actions on the Cloud
By Devesh Gupta, Product Head, Corporate Actions,
TCS Financial Solutions
flexiBility
26
Firms can now avoid the need for an on-premise solution by relying upon cloud-based
solutions that deliver a far lower TCO for technology, operations, and servicing. With a cloud-
based solution, firms can contemplate new business models that include fully automated
corporate actions, even for niche markets.
tcs Bancs for corporAte Actions on the cloudThe Corporate Actions solutions of TCS BaNCS is the top choice for custodian banks operating in
the largest markets in the world, and leading investment managers, fund managers, and asset-
servicing institutions have also selected the rich feature set of TCS BaNCS. TCS works with SWIFT,
DTCC and major financial regulatory bodies to ensure suitability and compliance throughout the
global capital markets.
Now, capital markets firms of any size can also deploy the same state-of-the-art solution as
industry leaders such as the leading custodian banks.
TCS manages the entire technical architecture, including high-performance compute and
storage, database backups and multiple connectivity options.
Getting started is as simple as uploading information about a firm’s business partners. In most
cases, there’s no real need to upload historical transactions, which means that firms can begin
working with customers immediately.
By switching to TCS BaNCS for Corporate Actions on the Cloud, firms can concentrate on
core business activities instead of the operational challenges of tracking corporate actions. The
subscription service allows IT departments to cut costs and overhead; increase straight-through-
processing rates; decommission production and test hardware; eliminate the need to maintain
or upgrade corporate action application software; and stop trying to keep up with complex set
of frequently-changing business processes.
enABling neW Business modelsAsset servicing firms, custodians, and broker dealers have shown keen interest in TCS BaNCS
for Corporate Actions on the Cloud to provide automated back-office support for their clients’
sophisticated trading strategies. With TCS’ track record across capital markets firms, along with
our mobile and digital capabilities and experienced consultants, there’s no better partner for
financial institutions.
By establishing an optimized operating expense model, smaller firms can launch highly
competitive offerings for customers in the hottest growth markets and specialty services.
Furthermore, the scalable, cloud-based infrastructure enables rapid growth without being
constrained by risky manual processes or technological barriers.
In addition to streamlining existing business models, this approach will also lead to the
emergence of entirely new business models, whether it be proxy voting advisors for a single
industry or asset servicing specialists for an underserved regional market. No matter the business
model, capital markets firms now have the capability to build a back office to perfectly match
their sales and trading capabilities in the front office, while vastly improving the quality of risk
management in the middle office. n
customizing your corporAte ActionsTCS BaNCS for Corporate
Actions on the Cloud is
completely configurable,
allowing firms to select any
combination of services from
the Corporate Actions value
chain, whether it’s a single
activity, the entire lifecycle
for asset servicing, or any-
thing in between.
Services include:
l announcement Capture
l Event Management
l Eligibility & Entitlements
l Notification Management
l response Management
l Instruction & Claim
Management
l Proceeds Management
l Tax & reclaims
l Transaction Management
27
28
anno
unce
men
t
Blockchain is more than banking and financial services.
As a horizontal technology, blockchain-based distributed
ledgers have potential applications spanning entire industries
and business domains. Although financial services firms will
be among the earliest adopters and loudest proponents of
blockchain, the technology will serve to drive efficiencies,
speed up processes, reduce risks, and enable powerful
information services throughout the global economy.
Use cases can be found with any business process
characterized by duplication of data, frequent and voluminous
message exchanges, time-consuming transactions, and
reconciliations.
There’s no limit to the possibilities for the contents of a
blockchain-based distributed ledger. Some examples being
actively considered or developed::
l Know-Your-Customer (kYC): Provide banks with
real-time access to complete, vetted, and up-to-date
customer profiles without having to compile data from
multiple sources.
l Settlement for OTC derivatives: Allow participants to
reduce risk by speeding up processing of specialized
derivatives trades, with “same-second settlement.”
l Corporate actions: Distribute profit announcements
from a shared ledger to the entire investing community,
eliminating the need for each participant to maintain
their own databases.
l Loan ledgers: Allow a defined community – either within
an organization or in a B2B setting – to manage loan
balances in a central facility.
l Credit history: Maintain consumer credit history records
on behalf of national credit rating bureaus and
participating lenders.
l forex payments: Clear and settle simultaneous foreign
exchange transactions using linked settlement.
l Digital identity: Maintain a repository of public keys to
enable centralized authentication for digital services.
l Trade repositories: Support market operations and
regulatory compliance with centralized, timestamped
records of trading activity.
l Insurance repositories: Store insurance documents in a
central location (see TCS BaNCS Customer Newsletter #26
[http://on.tcs.com/2qJWz2Y]).
Historically, to build solutions of this type, organizations
have built internal views of shared data using internally-
managed database technology, a complex choreography of
data exchanges, and risk-prone reconciliations. All this requires
excessive expenditures to replicate data that would be better
managed centrally. In financial services, whether in market
data management, corporate announcements, or know-your-
customer compliance, banks have absorbed the cost of building
databases that contain nothing more than data held elsewhere,
taking on reconciliation and data management activities without
adding business value.
With a blockchain-based distributed ledger, participants can
pool together their computing resources to create a single
view of shared data. Common business processes can be made
accessible to all participants, making it possible to eliminate
entire categories of business processes for data management,
message exchange and reconciliations.
One of the powerful capabilities enabled by blockchain is the
TCS LaUNChESQUARTZ Generation for Blockchain technologyBy r Vivekanand, Vice President and Co-head, TCS financial Solutions
ISTOCkPH
OTO
“smart contract.” Once there’s a single, shared view of relevant data
available on a trusted distributed ledger, the entire contract fulfill-
ment or business process can be automated. For example, if digital
assets are visible on a distributed ledger, a smart contract can
automatically initiate a process, like cash payment upon fulfillment
of a defined set of conditions.
Blockchain deployments can support a departmental database,
an industry-wide consortium, or projects of any scope. A large bank
with global operations can create a blockchain ecosystem just for its
own subsidiaries. Or, a financial institution can create an ecosystem
for use by its customers, starting with B2B initiatives serving small-
to-medium-sized enterprises in various industries. To serve multiple
financial institutions, market infrastructure providers (including
central banks, CSDs, and exchanges) can provide services through a
blockchain ecosystem with the aim of removing duplicative systems
and shortening cycle times for participating customers.
Financial institutions can embrace the technology for targeted
applications without waiting for other banks, or for the entire
industry, to align. A single firm can build an expansion-ready
ecosystem on its own initiative, based on the needs of its clients or
internal users.
Over the next 12 months, banks will be rolling out blockchain so-
lutions within their own enterprises, as well as distributed ledgers
built to provide services to their SME customers. Central banks and
market infrastructures are also moving transactions and business
processes onto distributed ledgers to support their existing cus-
tomers, as they are in a natural position to create these ecosystems.
Blockchain will drive new efficiencies throughout the value chain
for financial services, eliminating costs and risks while enabling a
new world of digital services and revenue sources.
INTRODUCINGIn April 2017, TCS announced the launch of Quartz, a set of
distributed ledger-based solutions designed for organizations
building or participating in distributed ledgers and smart
contracts. Quartz coexists with TCS BaNCS and other solutions,
integrates with enterprise solutions through our #DLGateway
product, and interoperates with other distributed ledgers and
messaging networks.
TCS BaNCS clients will be among the early adopters for a broad
range of use cases in banking, capital markets and insurance.
Financial institutions can take a leadership role in deploying
distributed-ledger solutions not only for their own organizations,
but also on behalf of their clients within a blockchain ecosystem.
Quartz supports enterprise blockchain ecosystems through the
following design philosophy:
l Coexistence. Quartz will work alongside existing and future
solutions, which means that your organization won’t have to
give up any functionality to connect with distributed ledgers.
l Integration. Quartz will connect to existing and future
solutions using the included #DLGateway product, enabling your
organization to populate shared ledgers with internal data, or to
enrich data contained in a shared ledger with locally-held data.
l Interoperability. Quartz will connect to multiple blockchains
and messaging networks such as SWIFT, using all relevant
standards and technologies to extend the functionality of
distributed ledgers outside of limited silos.
#DLGateway, included with Quartz, draws upon these
principles to connect existing enterprise solutions to distributed
ledgers. Blockchains can be deployed using the open-source
HyperLedger Fabric, with other blockchain frameworks, or with
multiple frameworks.
Developers can build their own distributed ledgers using
the forthcoming Quartz Development Framework, which will
include technology and functional components to minimize
the complexity of blockchain technology. Over time, increased
familiarity with the Quartz Development Framework will
enable organizations to discover and build new applications
for distributed ledgers, enabling highly-efficient ecosystems
connecting banks and their customers.
The world is moving quickly toward widespread adoption of
blockchain, which will become increasingly relevant as deployments
begin to interoperate with existing core systems and networks.
Quartz will enable institutions, particularly TCS BaNCS users, to be at
the leading edge of the evolution of blockchain, profiting from the
technology as it evolves and matures. n
1129
ISTOCkPH
OTO
™
apps are the future. They run faster and are more powerful and secure than webpages, they make
better use of available hardware capabilities, and they enable closer connectivity with other apps. Within the next five
to seven years, we expect apps to supplant browser-based interfaces — not just on mobile phones, tablets, kiosks, and
IoT-connected devices, but also on desktop PCs.
In anticipation, financial institutions need to get better and faster at building custom apps capable
of attracting and retaining customers. A wide range of new competitors have already made significant
investments into developing apps appealing to every potential market segment, and these inroads will
result in an immense range of consumer choices that threaten to make obsolete the outdated, cookie-cutter
websites of most financial institutions.
Generic, one-size-fits-all apps will no longer be enough. Similar to how banks offer branded affinity credit cards
to specific groups of customers, you’ll need custom apps tailored for every conceivable combination of occupation,
family structure, and affinity group. Yet unlike affinity cards, affinity apps will involve much more than cosmetic
changes. You’ll need to build specific capabilities and functions based on context, convenience, and content for
each intended market segment. You’ll also need to be poised and ready to build apps for any new market segments
that might emerge.
LEAVING BEHIND THE IT DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLEFor digital app development, achieving the requisite capabilities can no longer be accomplished using the
traditional IT development model. It’s not even a question of whether to use in-house talent or outsourcing
vendors. The reality is that managing the complete development cycle from concept to execution has
become simply too expensive for anyone to contemplate on the scale of small, niche-market apps.
The most popular mobile development tools allow you to build any functional components that you can
imagine given a sufficient expenditure of effort. Yet financial institutions often run into three major difficulties
during actual development and integration.
30
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apps FOR ALL
TCS BaNCS Digital App Development Kit (ADK) enables banks—and their customers—to build mobile and online apps using pre-defined, configurable, domain-aware widgets that work with any core banking solution.By Sathish Vallat, Head of TCS BaNCS Digital, TCS Financial Solutions
First, it’s hard to find people with highly-developed, specialty skillsets in design and development for mobile
apps. These people are in incredibly high demand, and even if you manage to staff up through product launch,
you’ll have difficulty keeping top talent around with the requisite platform knowledge to manage the inevitable
upgrades and feature requests.
Second, it’s expensive to overlay subject-matter expertise onto the development process. State-of-the-
art mobile development tools make it easy for you to drop a chart onto the display area, but that chart
is essentially a dumb widget. A chart only knows that it’s a chart, not that it’s a chart representing assets
and liabilities. Nor does the chart know how to integrate its underlying message objects and services into
back-end systems. That leaves it up to your project team to think through the entire business logic for every
element on screen. In these instances, shortcuts are taken, leaving you at best with just basic functionality
for these components.
Third, the front-end represents only about 30 percent of the effort. Whatever brilliant app you manage to build,
it’s only a prototype until you fully integrate it into back-end systems containing customer and transaction data.
This effort typically takes more time and expense than budgeted, which increases the chance of project slippage
and failure. The high number of moving parts also increases the total cost of ownership for the solution, which
eventually undermines the very business case for the app.
Due to these formidable challenges, most banks have stopped trying to build anything unique. Instead,
they rely upon the standard offerings of their core banking vendors. Most of the major vendors offer a
limited selection of ready-to-use, predefined apps that have been tightly integrated with an underlying core
banking solution based too often on their own ideas of what customers need. Although these apps easy to
roll out, customization is limited to changing the branding elements and color schemes. That’s not enough to
differentiate one bank or credit union from another, let alone stopping well-financed fintech competitors from
stealing your customers.
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apps FOR ALL
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A NEw APPROACH TO APPSwhat if you could build applications without any mobile development or design skills?
what if you could drag-and-drop visual interface components built expressly for banking and financial
services, with built-in awareness of what the underlying data represents in financial terms?
what if you could build custom apps that automatically connect to any core banking solution?
what if you could empower your customers to create their own custom apps?
That’s the thinking that prompted the creation of the Application Development kit (ADk) for TCS BaNCS
Digital.
TCS BaNCS Digital ADk enables financial institutions to customize their mobile and online offerings to an
extraordinary degree without the need for mobile development skills.
Business users can build their own apps using pre-built components that have domain-aware functionality.
You don’t need to be a professional app designer, as it’s no more complex than using PowerPoint. With drag-
and-drop interfaces, you can quickly build, configure, and rollout apps that automatically work with your core
banking system and other systems.
The pre-built components are based on a data model inspired by Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX). That
means it’s easy to figure out what any given component does based on clear definitions from an open financial
standard.
For example, if you add a financial calendar, it’ll automatically handle bank holidays and clearing times. If you
want to show a bank statement, rather than build it up line by line using computer code, you can use powerful
configuration and customization options to include the specific attributes you want displayed to the customer.
As for security, compliance, business rules, and identity validation – that’s all handled by TCS BaNCS Digital.
TCS BaNCS Digital is an omnichannel platform for digital experiences that connects to any core banking
system, leveraging services inspired by IFX standards. The highly-scalable platform operates on a modern, hybrid
architecture that allows device-agnostic behavior from a single code base. The platform supports Retail Banking,
Business Banking, Wealth Management, and Universal Banking. The solution delivers the capability for banks to
launch multiple consumer and enterprise apps using the same platform.
With TCS BaNCS Digital, any financial institution can deploy a set of completely modern apps built for banking.
The standard, pre-built apps included in TCS BaNCS Digital are perfect for medium-sized or smaller banks and credit
unions that are dissatisfied with the online and mobile banking options provided by their existing core banking
vendor. This means any financial institution can completely overhaul its online presence at an extremely low
cost, without having to undergo a core banking upgrade. On the back end, nothing changes. From the customer
standpoint, positive changes are everywhere.
As the middleware layer operating between the front-end apps and the back-end core banking solution,
TCS BaNCS Digital handles the full range of business requirements around security. Regulatory changes will be
monitored and updated on an ongoing basis, so that you don’t have to race to keep up with the latest legal
developments.
Also, the component library will be continually updated with new and more powerful widgets, allowing
customers of TCS BaNCS ADk to build the latest new apps in rapid response to market demand. This really gives
the power to large and mid size banks who are wanting to have control on the user context and experience
without IT or product dependency.
Using easy-to-build tools for the front-end and built-in connectivity on the back-end, you’ll be able to build apps
in weeks as opposed to months or years, and without having to embark upon any IT development initiatives.
733
ENABLING A wORLD OF POSSIBILITIESCustomers of TCS BaNCS Digital ADk will be positioned to build a wide array of exciting apps that go far beyond
what they have been able to achieve previously using their core banking providers.
Historically, bankers have measured customer loyalty by counting the number of active accounts. In the future,
we expect the more salient metric to be the number of customer-installed apps. With TCS BaNCS Digital ADk,
you can foster customer loyalty by offering a wide range of convenient apps targeted to their specific needs.
As a next step, we envision that financial institutions will extend TCS BaNCS Digital ADk capabilities to their
small-business customers, allowing them to build custom apps to serve their own customers. For example, suppose
a florist wants to allow customers to place online orders for bouquet deliveries, or a baker wants to arrange
bulk orders for restaurant deliveries. Previously, the baker or the florist would have to find or specify a solution
suited to their needs and then figure out how to integrate the financial supply chain into the platform with their
own infrastructure and tools. With TCS BaNCS Digital ADk, the florist and the baker would rely upon the bank
as a backbone to build their own customer-facing apps using pre-defined components and widgets. Through
this approach, small businesses will be able to deploy low-cost, highly-advanced online capabilities previously
unavailable to them, while simultaneously strengthening their relationship and loyalty with their bank as well as
their customers.
Beyond that, for larger enterprises, ecosystem integration would incorporate inventory records and other
sources of data. Through this approach, larger SMEs will be able to take advantage of the financially-aware
component library of TCS BaNCS Digital ADk to build powerful apps that incorporate data and functionality from
across the entire supply chain.
For larger financial institutions, we expect the ecosystem approach will become the dominant business
model in the years to come. For Tier 1 and Tier 2 banks that have long struggled with the challenges of the IT
development cycle, or for those that have already hit the wall in terms of capabilities offered by their current
core banking provider, TCS BaNCS Digital ADk offers an immediate path to building the capabilities being
demanded today, and a platform to support the capabilities of the future. n
how can banks respond to this new competitive dynamic?Banks will need to retain their customers’
trust for permission to continue
collecting and using personal data. There
has to be something of value involved
in the exchange, and so banks need to
take stock of what else they can offer to
customers. Standing still is simply not an
option.
Today’s modern core banking
solutions make it possible for financial
institutions to design and launch
new products quickly and efficiently.
Banks must seek out new sources
of competitive advantage, whether
through alliances with fintech
companies, investing in startups, or
building custom solutions in-house.
Compared to larger banks with fully-
staffed IT departments, community
banks and credit unions often have a
harder time managing the leap to an
entirely new technology architecture.
That’s one reason that community banks
and credit unions have shown great
interest in the mutualized approach
to running a core banking solution.
This lowers costs for participants, while
still allowing each the flexibility to
customize advanced product offerings
for their respective customers.
We’ve seen exciting examples of
community banks and credit unions
taking advantage of their local presence
to support community ecosystems
that bring together retail customers
and small-to-medium-sized businesses
in new ways. That’s only possible with
modern core banking technology.
Other than Brexit, what regulatory challenges do banks face?For retail banks, the biggest regulatory
drivers are GDPR and PSD2. These aren’t
just one-off compliance challenges, as
together they bring about fundamental
changes in the competitive
environment for European banking.
The EU’s General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR), also to be
implemented in the Uk, covers the
customer’s “right to be forgotten.”
Customers will have a greater say on
who can collect and keep their data,
and how that data can be used. This
has enormous implications on data
retention and archiving, and many
systems will need retrofitting to
accommodate those requirements.
For example, when a customer
closes an account, banks must retain
records for regulatory purposes while
preventing any marketing based on
that information.
At the same time, making use of
customer data for marketing has never
been more important due to the
revised Payment Services Directive,
known as PSD2.
Among other provisions, PSD2
introduces competition for electronic
payments from new payment
providers. If banks stand still, they’ll
be relegated to mere payment
processing utilities, allowing other
players to capture market share for
more-profitable services higher on
the value chain. That’s why banks
should accelerate their capabilities
for monetizing customer data before
others beat them to it.
In short: PSD2 pushes banks to make
better use of the data they have, while
GDPR ironically puts restrictions on the
data they are allowed to use.
34
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!how are London’s capital markets firms responding to Brexit? London has a long history as a capital markets
powerhouse, and many firms in the industry have
established their European base of operations in
London for derivatives, clearing and trading.
Following last year’s Brexit referendum, these
London-based firms are evaluating their options.
What London loses, cities in continental Europe
hope to gain. In anticipation of the greater
opportunities in Euro-denominated market
infrastructure, Eurozone banks are expanding their
capabilities in derivatives trading.
To maintain their market shares, London-based
banks are looking to move at least some of their
operations onto the continent. It’s difficult to do
that quickly, especially when it comes to transferring
employees and their families.
It’s also a challenge to move IT operations,
especially legacy systems using on-premise
technology. That’s why many firms, especially
smaller banks, are starting to give cloud-based
solutions a closer look. For less effort than it would
take to set up a new EU data center while keeping
the old Uk data center, firms can instead move their
entire operations onto the cloud, serving multiple
regions. This approach delivers full capabilities
wherever needed, enabling maximum flexibility in a
fluid political and regulatory environment.
OPTIMIZING THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRYS. Sambamurthy, Head, UK & Europe, TCS Financial Solutions, outlines the regulatory pressures and market challenges faced by European and UK financial institutions, and shows how infrastructure optimization offers a timely solution across capital markets, banking, and insurance.
how do these concepts apply to insurance?With our Diligenta BPO platform for life
insurance and pensions in the Uk, we’ve
proven how the low-cost, managed
services concept delivers real results to
insurers, whether facing tremendous cost
pressures, seeking to expand into new
markets or countries, or both.
One area of growth in managed services
has been due to changes in the structure
of European pensions. The movement from
defined benefits to defined contributions,
which has already occurred in the US,
is now gaining momentum in Europe.
To make the adjustment, insurance
companies will need to minimize the cost
of servicing their legacy policies, which is
a perfect fit for the Diligenta model.
Insurers will also have to retool to gain
the flexibility and speed to succeed in
the changing marketplace. That’s why
they are undergoing the same process
of optimization as other financial
institutions. Although the value chain for
insurance is different, the optimization
logic is the same, leading to an end state
that combines cloud solutions, managed
solutions, and mutual solutions. n
are financial institutions still resistant to the idea of moving to the cloud?The level of acceptance has changed
significantly over the past few years, and it has
been a startling difference.
Almost without exception, every single
prospective client I speak with today, whether
it’s in retail banking, corporate banking, capital
markets, or insurance, is looking at some variant
of an optimized infrastructure. This is from Spain
to the Nordics, from digital banks to investment
banks, and from credit unions to life insurance
companies. They’re asking for managed services,
cloud solutions, platform hosting, or some variant.
What can financial institutions do to manage their operational costs?Stop managing costs. Instead, optimize
them. Figure out the ideal state for
your operations and then draw up a
roadmap to make it happen.
There are areas throughout the
value chain where each organization
has its own systems processing
the same collection of data that
everyone else has. In most cases,
there’s no competitive advantage
being derived from these activities,
especially when you factor in the
risks and costs involved.
We believe a significant number
of these functions will be deployed
as mutualized solutions. Shared
software, infrastructure, and
operations will support common
services and business process for
industry participants.
For activities not covered by
mutual solutions, move anything
that’s not directly supporting
competitive differentiation into a
managed service that integrates
business processes and software.
What remains will be the essential
drivers of competitive advantage,
and those should be running on the
cloud. There are only a few situations
where financial institutions should be
running their own IT hardware, such
as algorithmic trading where firms
can achieve a competitive advantage
with custom hardware. Most
everyone else in the industry should
be running the bulk of their core
solutions, including their competitive
differentiators, on the cloud.
That’s how the cloud works in
other industries – and thanks to
PSD2, some of those highly-capable
industries will be entering financial
services.
how can banks respond to this new competitive dynamic?Banks will need to retain their customers’
trust for permission to continue
collecting and using personal data. There
has to be something of value involved
in the exchange, and so banks need to
take stock of what else they can offer to
customers. Standing still is simply not an
option.
Today’s modern core banking
solutions make it possible for financial
institutions to design and launch
new products quickly and efficiently.
Banks must seek out new sources
of competitive advantage, whether
through alliances with fintech
companies, investing in startups, or
building custom solutions in-house.
Compared to larger banks with fully-
staffed IT departments, community
banks and credit unions often have a
harder time managing the leap to an
entirely new technology architecture.
That’s one reason that community banks
and credit unions have shown great
interest in the mutualized approach
to running a core banking solution.
This lowers costs for participants, while
still allowing each the flexibility to
customize advanced product offerings
for their respective customers.
We’ve seen exciting examples of
community banks and credit unions
taking advantage of their local presence
to support community ecosystems
that bring together retail customers
and small-to-medium-sized businesses
in new ways. That’s only possible with
modern core banking technology.
35
36
Bank Yahav is successfully operational with the TCS BaNCS Universal Banking platform, in a
first-of-its-kind deployment for the Israeli market.
In 2014, Bank Yahav selected Tata Consultancy Services as a partner to modernize its banking
technology with a view to adopt global standards in operations and processes. TCS established
a robust IT infrastructure and banking application landscape to the exacting standards of the
Bank and the regulators. The solution, centered on TCS BaNCS, is hosted and integrated with the
local payments infrastructure and ATM/PoS network, and has connectivity to the Tel Aviv Stock
Exchange, among others.
Shaul Gelbard, CEO, Bank Yahav, said, “The critical and successful role that TCS played along
with the Bank Yahav team in shaping our banking transformation makes them a trusted partner.
Our Bank and TCS, working closely together, succeeded in achieving our strategic imperative
of running our own systems, giving us the agility to anticipate and meet our customers’ needs
while ensuring we comply with Bank of Israel’s direction on core transformation.”
Eyal Moskal, Country Manager, TCS, Israel, commented, “The successful deployment at
Bank Yahav is a reflection of our deep commitment to the Israeli market and is an important
milestone in our journey in Israel. The breadth of the solutions provided by TCS demonstrates
our capability to provide an integrated, end-to-end offering to our customers across solutions,
platforms and services.”
Gadi Davidiyan, CIO, Bank Yahav, added, “With the successful deployment of pure Java-based
TCS BaNCS components and services, we are able to provide our customers with an online, real-
time system and a 360-degree view of their financial holdings, with simplified banking, risk and
compliance processes. No other core banking vendor has been able to execute a successful transformation program
in the Israeli market until now. TCS’ support in running our Bank’s IT and Operations infrastructure, information security
and regulatory compliance needs has proven invaluable. We will shortly be further enhancing client experience and
increasing our digital adoption with TCS BaNCS Digital. With the successful deployment of TCS BaNCS, we have reached
a significant milestone in the evolution of the banking industry in Israel.”
N Ganapathy Subramaniam, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, TCS, said, “We are pleased that
Bank Yahav is live on TCS BaNCS. It is to the full credit of the Bank, our partner, HMS, and our team to have enabled
the complex delinking of their IT systems from Bank Hapoalim onto our platform so uneventfully. The fact that
such a complex system transition has been accomplished in a big bang manner makes it truly one of its kind
globally and speaks volumes of the planning and execution discipline on the part of all the stakeholders.”
The TCS solution used by the Bank across the front, mid and back-office operations as well the Bank’s
Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) network, supports all the needs of the Israeli market across banking, securities
and payments with comprehensive advisory and portfolio management services and complies with over 1,500
regulatory provisions. The project involved delivery and deployment of over 500 interfaces into a complex
ecosystem with TCS BaNCS, including a few local applications. n
baNk YaHav Transforms its Banking Technology with TCS BaNCS
About Bank YahavBank yahav
for government
employees ltd is an Israeli
Bank headquartered in
Jerusalem. The Bank has
over 50 Branches spread
across Israel and is primarily
a retail bank providing a
wide spectrum of services
to its customer base
across banking, payments,
securities including both
local and international
markets and advisory
services. The Bank is 50%
owned by United Mizrachi
Tefahot Bank, which is one of
the top 4 Banks in Israel.
new
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37
Mercantile Bank Limited (MBL), South Africa, has successfully transformed its
banking operations with TCS BaNCS Digital. With this modernization of technology,
the Bank has significantly elevated customer touch points of browser, mobile and
tablets into a digitally immersive experience.
Mercantile Bank wanted to provide an omni-channel experience for its Small
and Medium Business customers and enhance the value and services it provides.
MBL selected TCS BaNCS Digital for its hybrid architecture, responsive web design
and functional richness for the market. With the solution, MBL can now deliver
channel agnostic business banking, with an intuitive, interactive and instantaneous
experience across multiple devices. The solution’s scalability ensures that large
volumes of transactions are managed by the Bank with ease.
TCS BaNCS Digital is designed with business aware intuitive widgets and a robust
middleware platform that allows the solution to be agnostic to back-end systems. The
hybrid architecture-based solution delivers retail and business banking capabilities,
including several types of payments, credit cards and tax filing, and is integrated with
South Africa’s national tax payments Infrastructure. The solution is also designed to
deliver end users with optimized bandwidth consumption and an instantaneous touch
experience.
karl kumbier, Chief Executive Officer at Mercantile Bank, said, “TCS BaNCS
Digital is easy to use, secure, agile, and flows intuitively, which makes it a great user
experience-based banking platform. It fully integrates with private and business
banking, and allows for payments directly to South African Revenue Service via
SARS E-Filing. It is designed to be simpler and rests on the three pillars of security,
speed and convenience. Since the launch of our new solution, customer satisfaction
of our online channel is at 86.7% for our Bank. We look forward to working with TCS
in leading the South African market through digital innovation.”
Sathish Vallat, Head, TCS BaNCS Digital, said, “TCS BaNCS Digital is operational
at MBL, deepening customer engagement levels through an omni-channel
business banking experience. Our enterprise and consumer app strategy with
hybrid architecture adoption and alignment to industry standards has enhanced
business innovation while delivering value to end customers. Our partnership with
a challenger Bank like MBL who focuses on building a better experience for SME
banking positions us as the future solution for financial institutions who look at
‘place’ as a customer mindset rather than a geographic location. With 8 of the top
10 financial institutions being powered by TCS BaNCS in South Africa, we continue
to remain the partner of choice in the region.” n
MerCaNtiLe baNk Modernizes Operations with TCS BaNCS Digital
About Mercantile Bank Limited
mercantile Bank ltd.
was founded in South
Africa in 1965 and is 100%
owned by Caixa Geral de
Depósitos, the largest bank
in Portugal and a global
financial services group
present in 23 countries and
in 4 continents, with more
than 139 years’ banking
experience. Mercantile
Bank is a niche business
and commercial bank that
provides a comprehensive
set of products and
services catering for the
everyday banking needs
of businesses. The Bank
seeks to differentiate itself
through great service and a
deep understanding of the
needs of the South African
entrepreneurs.
even
ts
38
FT-TCS BaNCS FINANCIAL LEADERS DINNER FORUMPanel discussion on “Cloud computing – the next big frontier in the fintech revolution.”
1
3
5
4
1. N Ganapathy Subramaniam, COO, Tata Consultancy Services
2. Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority
of Singapore
3. Saket Sharma, CIO Treasury Services Technology, Treasury
Services, BNY Mellon
4. (From left to right) Ade McCormack, moderator; Sopnendu
Mohanty, Monetary Authority of Singapore; Saket Sharma, BNY
Mellon; N Ganapathy Subramaniam, TCS; Ruth Wandhöfer, Citi /
European Payments Council.
5. Ruth Wandhöfer, Global Head of Regulatory and Market
Strategy, Treasury & Trade Solutions, Citi; and Chair, Payment
Security Support Group, European Payments Council
2
new
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39
iFX FOruM
Names New Secretary from TCSThe IFX Forum Board of Directors has named Murray Heldon of Tata Consultancy Services as Secretary of
IFX Forum, an international non-profit industry association whose mission is to develop and promote the adoption of
its open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange, IFX, which is available for evaluation at no charge at
http://bms.ifxforum.org/.
The officer elections were held at the Forum’s Fall 2016 Face-to-face Meeting, which took place October 24-26
in Richfield, Minnesota, hosted by member U.S. Bank. The meeting focused on the launch of the Forum’s new
Standardized Banking APIs initiative.
TCS jOINS IfX fOrUM’S OPEN APIs WorKing groupTCS is participating as an Anchor Member of the IFX Forum’s newly launched Open APIs Working Group. In keeping with its core mission, the IFX Forum recently established a strategic priority around the creation of
industry-wide standard open APIs. The Open APIs Working Group is working to develop a standardized way
to address the growing impetus for banks to provide more open access to their data, in place of proprietary
APIs (application programming interfaces) being developed by financial institutions and vendors.
One of the major drivers of adoption of APIs in financial services is the European Union’s Revised
Directive on Payment Services, or PSD2.
Nitin Sirohi, Head of Payments, TCS Financial Solutions, commented: “PSD2 opens new avenues
for banks to play a larger role in the rapidly changing financial ecosystem around their customers.
Such regulations underline the importance of collaboration and alliance among the service providers
(including the banks) to deliver far superior, seamless services to customers. API development is a key
technology that will accelerate PSD2 adoption and evolution. IFX Forum has enabled the industry
to leverage IFX message specifications for designing the APIs. We at TCS are actively supporting this
initiative by participating in the API Working Group in the IFX Forum.”
The inaugural face-to-face meeting of the Working Group took place May 2-3 in Orlando, Florida, USA,
during the Forum’s 2017 Annual Meeting.
40
TCS BaNCS CustOMer FOruM
TCS BaNCS Customer Forum
attendees gathered at the Hotel
President Wilson in Geneva.
even
tsThe 9th Annual
TCS BaNCS Customer Forum was held at the
President Wilson Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland
on September 28, 2016.
41
TCS BaNCS CustOMer FOruM
N Ganapathy Subramaniam is
now Chief Operating Officer and
Executive Director of TCS.
The 9th Annual TCS BaNCS Customer Forum
was held at the President Wilson Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland
on September 28, 2016.
even
ts
1 2
4
3
5
76
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1. S. Sambamurthy, TCS; Mr. Pema N. Nadik, CEO,
Bank of Bhutan; and Nicholas Searle, TCS at the
Retail Banking Conference & Awards 2017 in London,
May 2017. Bank of Bhutan and IDFC Bank were
both finalists in the category “IT Innovation of The Year.”
IDFC Bank was also a finalist in the category
“Excellence in Customer Centricity.”
2. John Lee (at right), Vice President, Head of
Innovation and Enterprise Delivery, TMX Group,
speaking on a panel at the 13th TCS Innovation Forum,
an annual event that brings together senior technology
executives, innovation practitioners and researchers from
the TCS Co-Innovation Network (COIN™).
3. IDFC Bank was a finalist at the Best of FinxTech
Awards, held in New York on April 26, 2017.
4. TCS BaNCS at the Deluxe Exchange 2017
event in Phoenix, Arizona in February 2017.
TCS BaNCS Dialogues
5. Securities Processing and Corporate Actions
in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
6. Corporate Actions in New York, USA.
7. Insurance in Johannesburg, South Africa.
8. Joe Reilly, Chief Technology Strategist at
Zions Bancorporation, spoke at BAI Beacon, held
October 2016 in Atlanta.
9. Joe Reilly with the TCS team at BAI Beacon.
corpActions Conference 2017
TCS BaNCS was the exclusive Diamond sponsor of
this year’s CorpActions Conference, Europe’s premier
corporate actions and asset servicing event, which took
place on March 7, 2017 in London.
The afternoon keynote was delivered by Giles Elliott,
Head of Business Development for Capital Markets, who
shared insights on how to optimize the value of digital
and emerging technologies such as blockchain and
artificial intelligence, and touched upon why you should
consider mutualized solutions and invest in capital
efficient business models.
In addition, Devesh Gupta, Head—TCS BaNCS User
Group for Corporate Actions, contributed as a panelist
to an engaging discussion on opportunities and use
cases for blockchain and disruptive technologies.
American Banker Digital BankingAustin, Texas, USAJune 12-14, 2017Booth 120
BAI BeaconAtlanta, Georgia, USAOctober 4-5, 2017
SibosToronto, Ontario, CanadaOctober 16-19, 2017Stand k45
upcoming eVents
43
fintech forward panel featuring:joe reilly, chief technology strategist at zions BAncorporAtion
ashvini Saxena, TCS financial Solutions
all of us at TCS BaNCS look forward to seeing you in Toronto at
2017October 16-19 n Stand K45
