Credit Union Australia (CUA) has announced it will migrate its core banking platform to Tata Consulting Services’ BaNCS system over the next two years.
The BaNCS platform is operated by the Indian outsourcer’s Financial Solutions division.
In 2006, following the merger of CUA and the Australian National Credit Union (ANCU), some 400,000 customer records were migrated from the Fiserv financial application to Abacus on an IBM mainframe.
CUA’s CIO of 14 years, Barry Los, oversaw that project and will now help manage the transition to Tata’s BaNCS platform.
In a announcement yesterday, CUA did not release any technical details of which, if any, in-house systems would be replaced as a result of the deal.
Update: A CUA spokesperson has since confirmed to CIO that the mainframe system will be considred for retirement as part of this project.
"The mainframe system was home-grown and served us well for 20 years," the spokesperson said. "We're currenlty running on a mainframe and may stay with this. However, we are reviewing the option of mainframe versus an open system. We've not yet made a decision on this."
The credit union is Australia’s largest customer-owned financial institution and provides banking services to more than 400,000 people.
Tata acquired the BaNCS platform when it purchased Australian software company Financial Network Services back in 2005.
The Commonwealth Bank is also a BaNCS customer and runs its Indian banking operations on the platform.
According to CUA, moving to BaNCS will “revolutionise” its core banking system and back office processes to provide better “flexibility and integration” across the business and deliver “an enhanced customer experience”.
CUA’s chief executive officer, Chris Whitehead, said replacing CUA’s core banking system is a “significant and essential investment” for the future of the business.
“The implementation of a new core banking system will enhance our business capabilities, enabling us to meet our growth objectives and bring greater efficiencies across the business,” Whitehead said.
“It will also ensure our customers get greater and faster access to innovative products and a consistently good customer experience every time they bank with us.”
Whitehead said TCS was awarded the contract following a “rigorous selection process” and CUA is confident it will be able to deliver a world-class core banking system that will meet its needs for years ahead.
TCS Financial Solutions president, N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, said the BaNCS core banking solution will assist in driving new product development and improve efficiencies for CUA.
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