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Posts Tagged ‘Bank’

IBM takes blame for massive bank system failure

July 13th, 2010

IBM took responsibility for a major IT system failure suffered by one of Singapore’s largest banks on July 5, saying an employee’s error caused the outage.

In a statement released Tuesday, IBM said problems started when software monitoring tools detected “instability” within DBS Bank’s storage system. While the storage system remained “fully functional,” IBM employees initiated a recovery process to fix the issue.

“Unfortunately, a failure to apply the correct procedure inadvertently caused the service outage,” IBM said, adding that no data was lost.

The outage knocked DBS’ IT systems offline for seven hours, leaving customers unable to withdraw money from automatic teller machines. All of the bank’s commercial and consumer banking systems were affected, although no data was lost, the bank said at the time.

Much of DBS’ IT systems are managed by IBM under a S$1.2 billion [B] (US$868 million [M]) outsourcing agreement signed in 2002.

IBM and DBS are taking steps to prevent a repeat of the July 5 system failure.

IBM has “taken steps to enhance training of our personnel related to current procedures and brought in experts from our global team to provide further assistance,” the statement said. In addition, IBM and DBS are taking “additional actions to increase the resiliency and redundancy of this part of DBS’ infrastructure,” it said.

A DBS spokeswoman did not immediately reply to an e-mail seeking comment on the IBM statement.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179121/IBM_takes_blame_for_massive_bank_system_failure

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Tags: Bank IBM

Bank of the West to intensify credit risk program with SAS

December 3rd, 2009

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To enhance its credit risk management capabilities and help comply with Basel II regulation, Bank of the West has selected software from SAS, the leading provider of business analytics software and services.

With SAS Credit Scoring for Banking, the bank plans to help generate, deploy, validate and monitor critical risk models in an integrated, auditable and flexible platform.

“Bank of the West wished to improve performance and service benefits through better analytics and risk management,” said Schyler Thiessen, Senior Vice-President, Risk Governance, Policies and Modelling at Bank of the West. “In addition to the comprehensive analytic framework and implementation platform, SAS provided the right blend of functional, operational and financial specification we required.”

SAS Credit Scoring for Banking combines SAS software’s award-winning data management, analytic and reporting capabilities to provide a powerful in-house credit scoring solution. This solution helps lenders implement, credit scorecards faster, through a more cost-effective delivery process than any outsourcing alternative. Additionally, SAS Credit Scoring for Banking is also designed to automate the model development and validation process, increasing the time spent on reviewing analytic insights versus time spent on reviewing data.

With more than 30 years of experience in financial services, SAS works closely with top financial institutions to provide timely solutions that address critical business needs. SAS data integration, fraud detection, risk management, regulatory compliance, customer intelligence and other software are used by more than 3 100 financial institutions worldwide, including 96% of banks in the FORTUNE Global 500. Furthermore, financial services are SAS’s largest industry segment by revenue, contributing 42% of the total company revenue of $2.26 billion in 2008.

Source : http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28585:bank-of-the-west-to-intensify-credit-risk-program-with-sas&catid=349:industrysolutions

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Big IT vies for share of $1-b bank, power deals

November 27th, 2009

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As India’s regional rural banks (RRB) and state-owned power sector firms seek to modernise their business and technology systems, country’s tech firms including TCS, HCL, Wipro and Infosys are seen pursuing projects worth almost $1 billion over next 12 months.

While over 91 RRBs plan to spend nearly Rs 2,000 crore on tech upgradation including procurement of a core banking software, different state governments are set to spend around Rs 2,000 crore as part of the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP) initiative. Indian states of Chattisgarh, HP, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand are preparing tender proposals for contracts worth Rs 300 crore each as part of the power sector reforms.

“We are eyeing a 25% market share in the RRB IT implementation in the next 12 months. Domestic IT contracts present an opportunity worth over $1 billion over next six months. For RRBs, we have entered into a partnership with SBI for IT implementation for its 900 out of the 15,000 RRBs, in the first phase,” said G Srinivas Raghavan, country head for India Business at TCS.

“We have also entered into a partnership with Punjab National Bank and Indian Bank for IT implementation for their RRBs,” he added. The rural banks need to upgrade and integrate around 14,816 branches in order to become more efficient.

According to experts tracking these reforms, TCS has already emerged as the lowest bidder in three states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for APDRP contracts worth over Rs 750 crore.

Meanwhile, multinational rival IBM has also shifted its focus to the rural banks. Recently, IBM won a deal from the Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank (APGVB) to enhance the banks IT infrastructure across 530 rural branches. IBM also signed a 10-year outsourcing agreement with Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank, in Uttarakhand, this year.

Rival Wipro is not far behind. The company has recently won RRB implementation projects from large public sector bank. “We have also bagged the State Data Centre projects from Gujarat and Rajasthan, worth Rs 30 crore each.

Government sales are a big focus for Wipro now,” says Ranbir Singh, Wipro’s government vertical head. HCL on the other hand has won APDRP IT implementation for Rajasthan.

“We will deploy our remote metering and billing solutions and revamp the power distribution systems in state power corporations, thus minimising outages for the consumer,” Mr Raghavan added.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Company/Corporate-Trends/TCS-HCL-Wipro-and-Infosys-vie-for-share-of-1-bn-bank-power-deals/articleshow/5269626.cms

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Tags: Bank HCL Infosys IT Outsourcing SBI Wipro

Central bank outsourcing hits right note

November 25th, 2009

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The number of banknotes that are produced by private contractors is likely to double over the next two decades in a “gradual but remorseless” trend for central banks to outsource, according to De La Rue.

Although monetary authorities in key markets including the US, Russia and China were unwilling for security reasons to farm out production, others were likely to follow the example set by the Bank of England, said James Hussey, De La Rue chief executive.

In the job since the turn of the year, Mr Hussey said the banknote printer was well placed following a reorganisation and sale of its cash systems business.

Revenue in the six months to September 26 rose from £244.7m to £252.2m, while an “unusually favourable mix of work” helped operating profit rise 17 per cent.

However, the performance of its remaining cash processing operations – which made an operating loss of £1.6m ($2.7m) – disappointed analysts. The shares fell 16½p to 959p.

Mr Hussey said a recent £400m contract win to supply the UK’s biometric passports was “the sort of thing I’m talking about in terms of the growth of our non-banknote business”.

Interest charges weighed on the bottom line, and pre-tax profit fell from £47.2m to £44.2m. Earnings per share were 31.7p (220.5p), and the interim dividend rises from 13.7p to 14.1p.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6be77156-d921-11de-b2d5-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

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