Client Situation
With an asset size of ~USD 30 Bn, our client is one of the leading banks operating across five continents, covering countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia regions. The bank had previously implemented two core banking systems – one dedicated to retail and the other to wholesale banking.
The bank had recently launched its digital banking platform and was facing challenges in bringing new products and enhancements due to the monolithic core systems. The bank was looking to build a bank of the future. Their primary focus was to transform their existing core systems from multi-entity, multi-instance to a groupwide digital API enabled and cloud-ready system.
Cedar’s Approach
Cedar was requested to assist the bank with a way forward core banking roadmap.
- Developed an understanding of the business & IT strategy
- Conducted detailed discussions with the key stakeholders to understand the current challenges & expectations from the future core banking system
- Developed a current state assessment highlighting the challenges & implications of existing with application blueprint
- Built an understanding of the Universal & Next-Gen Core Banking systems
- Identified the trends and design principles of a futuristic core banking system
- Developed way forward options including the pros, cons, estimated timelines & investments; Developed multiple scenarios for roll-out
- Mapped the way forward options based on fitment to bank’s strategy and levels of transformation involved
- Conducted a workshop to align the stakeholder with the potential options to build consensus
Outcome
With the way forward options on the core banking roadmap built, the benefits included
- Transparency on their current state and its inherent disadvantages on why they cannot move forward with it
- An understanding of the industry practices and what is available in the market
- Clarity on the available options to move forward, most important, aligned to their business strategy
- The business case for the leadership decision making