Finacle - Customers | Case Studies

National Commercial Bank,
Jeddah Streamlining Operations

Bank Profile

The National Commercial Bank (NCB), headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was the first bank established in Saudi Arabia. Formed in 1953, NCB is the largest bank in terms of capital; both in Saudi Arabia and in the Middle East. The bank's paid-up capital is SR 6,000 million (US$ 1,600 million) and the total assets at year end 2007 totaled US$ 55,658 million. Net profit for fiscal year 2007 totaled US$ 1,610 million. With its 266 branches, 942 ATM's, 7000 point of sale (P.O.S) terminals and over two million customers, NCB has established its current financial strength and leadership in the Saudi and Middle East markets. NCB is committed to delivering better service to its customers by leveraging the advancements provided by technology.

In the fiscal year 2007, over 85% of customer transactions were executed through alternative delivery channels. Currently, the bank operates a comprehensive array of alternative channels for services' delivery. The bank runs the largest dealing room in foreign exchange and money market in the Middle East. It is also the pioneer of mobile banking in Saudi Arabia, by virtue of being the first bank to launch credit cards for settlement of online purchases.

Key Business Drivers

Branch as the Channel for Corporate Clients
Corporate customers were using the branches for their day-to-day inquiries and transactions. Some corporate's had the option to use NCB Direct, a PC-banking solution which was using software running at the client location to transact with the bank. However this did not succeed in reducing the branch overhead as the bank had a huge volume of Cashier Cheque/ Foreign Currency Draft requests from corporate's which involved manual operations at the branch. Branch teller therefore often had to interact with the Treasury help-desk to decide on the best exchange rate to be given to the customer.

Fewer Features in Incumbent System
Cash management features for deriving exchange rates in online mode from the treasury system were not available to the PC banking customers. Liquidity management features of account sweeping, time deposits management and SWIFT / SARIE payments had to be executed by the corporate at the branches or by calling up the relationship manager and sending the authorization by fax.

Non Web-enabled Transactions
Corporate customers of NCB had to prepare the payroll files in the format specified by the bank and courier the storage media to the bank for processing.

Solution Overview

The National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia, identified Infosys as its technology partner and implemented its Finacle web-based cash management solution to address its existing business issues. Backed by Infosys' years of in-depth understanding of this domain and new generation industry standard technologies of J2EE and .NET, the web-based cash management solution provides banks with comprehensive and powerful features. These provisions eliminate constraints of geography and offer any time, anywhere access to information along with rich features like global liquidity management, client-managed short term investments, pooling, sweeping, EIPP and cross border payments.

The solution also offers multi-channel delivery through desktop and wireless devices, integration with large corporate ERP systems, image delivery for positive pay etc. In addition to providing the benefits of scalability, performance and fault tolerance, this solution also ensures reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), increased flexibility, extensibility, faster time-to-market, quicker implementation and ease of maintenance for the bank.

For NCB, Finacle was deployed within 12 months.

The solution addresses the following operational areas:

Web-enablement of Services to the Bank's Corporate Customers
Corporate's need not use the branches for inquiries and transactions any more. The web based cash management solution (product offering named Alahli eCorp by the bank), allows customers to login using a browser from their organization, to inquire and transact with NCB. Corporate's can now access the liquidity management features of the application over the internet to set up account sweep rules, initiate /roll-over money market deals and have the facility of an automated reconciliation of the account transactions with the corporate ERP entries.

Newer Feature Offerings to the Bank
The Finacle web-based cash management solution has been interfaced with the treasury host system for fetching online exchange rates and applying these rates for conducting transactions. The corporate is given the latest rate when approving the transaction. The solution has provided a facility for the corporate to enter / upload the cheque / draft requests. It has also been interfaced with the bulk-cheque-printing solution and the core banking system to ensure faster processing of the requests.

Real-time Transaction Processing
Corporate clients can set up third-party beneficiaries and transact SWIFT / SARIE payments, online, by using the internet. The solution is interfaced with the bank's core banking system to make these payments in a straight-through-processing mode. It facilitates the bank to set up spread for the exchange rates based on the corporate category and the amount of the transaction. The set up and the exchange rates are based on the relationship the bank shares with its clients.

Secure Architecture for Safe Transactions
The corporate can upload the payroll files using the internet, over a secured connection. The payroll files formats are verified by the solution and delivery to core banking system is automated for processing. The status of the processing is displayed to the corporate in the application.

Reaping the Benefits

Enhanced Customer Service
Corporate customers of the bank can now transact with the bank online. Conventional methods of branch and telephonic contacts are reduced & replaced by self service facilities, thereby enhancing customer convenience.

Reduced Costs
The cost of service for corporate transactions has reduced as a virtual branch is handling them, with lower staffing requirements. As the system is interfaced with the core banking and treasury systems, the transactions are handled in STP mode.

Streamlining Operations
Rich functionality delivered over an alternate channel, has reduced the load on branch operations. The bank can now access volumes of transactions from a single point and fix the pricing of the products and features accordingly.

View From the Top

“With Finacle web-based cash management solution, we, at NCB have taken steps towards offering business value to our corporate customers. The solution offers us flexibility and functionalities that would be the key differentiator for global banks and provides us the competitive edge. Its web-enabled real time transaction processing capabilities and secure architecture has given us that much needed business value."

Taha Al Kuwaiz
Deputy Managing Director
The National Commercial
Bank, Saudi Arabia

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