Bank of Punjab live with new core banking system, Oracle Flexcube
Bank of Punjab live with new core banking system
Bank of Punjab, a government-owned bank based in Lahore, Pakistan, has implemented a new core banking system, Oracle FSS’s Flexcube.
The new system was chosen by the bank in late 2014/early 2015, following a lengthy system selection process. The final came down to Flexcube, offered by local system integrator Techlogix, and Temenos’ T24, offered by another local tech firm Infotech.
T24 edged Flexcube in the technical score but Flexcube was quoted at about 20% cheaper than T24 to implement, at PKR 1.04 billion ($8.4 million) against PKR 1.38 billion ($11.1 million).
Umar Saif, member of the Bank of Punjab board, says on Twitter that when he joined, the bank “worked on an arcane Cobol-based system, branches were not online and no mobile banking service”. Today, the new core banking system is in place, all 550 branches of the bank are online and there is mobile banking service – all in less than three years, he emphasises.
Flexcube is well-established in Pakistan, with eight or so users there. Among these are Askari Bank, Bank Al Habib, MCB Bank and First Microfinance Bank.
Meanwhile, another bank in Pakistan, Bank of Khyber, is in system selection mode, with Oracle FSS understood to be among the contenders.
