Consolidation of all international core banking processes of a bank into a single system and IT operating model

Case Study

Background

Our client was a large German bank operating several international branches and subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and North America. The bank operates in various business segments. Each international location specializes in a selection of these business segments and additionally focuses on individual products and services that the bank exclusively offers in the local country and market. Partly these individual products and services are tailored to the respective markets from a regulatory perspective.

Until now, different local IT core systems and core processes have been used at each international location, while the core systems used at the head office are primarily geared towards the German market. A complex integration architecture, different time zones and varying requirements from local regulators made technical and functional interaction across locations difficult and slowed down the collaboration efficiency. Additionally, the systems at the locations outside Europe had reached the end of their service life and needed to be replaced.

Goals

The aim of the project was to design and implement an IT setup that would provide all the bank’s international locations with a future-proof and, as much as possible, uniform basis, thus ensuring the technical and processual ability to act. The regulatory requirements, which sometimes differ greatly from country to country, also had to be considered as well as the requirements of the unique business models at each location. In addition, the technical requirements of the parent company had to be considered and the company needed to operate in parallel with competing large-scale IT projects. Finally, it was necessary to introduce a (24-hour) operating model that could withstand a processual and legal third-party comparison.

Solution

All the bank’s foreign entities were migrated to a single core banking system and standardized data structures in terms of processes and technology. To this end, the technical mapping of all previously heterogeneous business processes at the locations was standardized. One of the locations was selected as the internal IT service provider and enabled to provide technical support to all other international locations. To achieve this, a global program and project structure was introduced, and a new operating model was set up to orchestrate all international business and IT teams.

Results

Thanks to the new system and the standardized processes, all the bank’s data has been synchronized and can therefore support all the locations’ core processes in a better way. The new operating model enables the bank to react faster to new requirements across all locations. Cooperation and trust in each other’s performance has been improved and restored within the international divisions and the German parent location. Overall, the project sustainably strengthened the bank’s international customer focus and competitiveness. The program structure introduced laid the foundation for better cross-location cooperation in follow-up projects.

Our Role

A partner from eStrategy Consulting supported the project as the overarching program and project manager for all participating locations and entities. This role included strategic, content-related and organizational leadership as well as the establishment of strong stakeholder management.