Bahraini Saudi Bank (BSB) will introduce internet banking services by the end of 2006, IT Weekly can reveal.
The growing commercial and retail bank has already kicked off an overhaul of its IT infrastructure as it gears up for the move.
It has implemented a security management system — gaining BS7799 certification in the process — based on consultancy from Indian IT giant Wipro.
BSB is now evaluating bids from three ‘big name’ vendors for a US$3million core software contract, which will be announced next month.
It currently uses the Bankmaster application from Misys as its core banking software application but this will be dropped in favour of a more scalable solution, according to P. S. Venkatachalam, head of IT at BSB.
Misys was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.
“We are in the process of migrating to a new core software, so the evaluation is currently happening. It should be done by the end of next year,” said Venkatachalam, declining to identify the vendors in the running.
“The new product, and internet banking for our customers, will be live in another 12 months,” he went on to say.
Adding more channels to the bank’s portfolio, along with its increasing need for greater scalability, were cited as reasons for the migration away from Bankmaster by Venkatachalam.
BSB runs HP Unix servers for its core hardware system, which are to be retained throughout the project and into the next phase.
The five-month implementation by Wipro, which was completed this month, saw BSB’s information security management processes upgraded to BS7799 standards, an internationally recognised certificate for best practices in the management of IT security and risk control.
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