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NT Bureau
Chennai, Mar 28:

        Both Syndicate Bank and i-flex have brought laurels to India in general and Chennai in particular after winning The Asian Banker awards for excellence in the implementation of Core Banking project.

        At 'The Asian Banker summit' held in Jakarta, the awards and letters of commendation were given away to nine banks including Syndicate Bank and their IT partners for their accomplishments in technological excellence in the financial services industry. All nine projects were ambitious, successful, and would ultimately become influential in helping the financial services industry overcome difficulties and reach new heights.

        It may be noted that The Asian Banker IT Implementation Awards programme was launched this year to discover the emerging best practices for IT in the financial services industry, and identify the benchmarks that senior operations as well as technology heads can use in their projects.

        The largest annual gathering of financial services industry professionals within the Asia Pacific region attracted delegates from all around the region and featured high profile speakers like Paul Keating, the former prime minister of Australia, Jaime Caruana, former chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the former governor of the Bank of Spain, Rob Close OBE, president of CLS Bank International and Sir Brian Pitman, former chairman of Lloyds TSB.

        Syndicate Bank and i-flex won The Asian Banker IT Implementation Award 2006 for the best Core Banking Project Award for large banks.

        In a citation, the awards committee stated: Our evaluation of Syndicate Bank and i-flex's core banking implementation recognised that their consistent effort over last few years has borne fruit, as they have successfully implemented a turnkey project that covers a breadth of applications. According to the submission, the bank has covered considerable ground, managing to bring more than 1200 of its branches under the technologically advanced new generation core banking system since the project began.

        We took note of their success over the last year in bringing more than 815 of these branches into this new generation system, which included 334 branches in rural areas with very limited infrastructure facilities. The project has also enabled the bank to double its number of ATM and internet users.'

        There is a likelihood that this new generation banking system and the enhanced services through improved delivery channels will not only provide significantly improved customer satisfaction, but also establish an enterprise-wide view of customers for the bank and help it offer a range of value-added services. We believe that this project has the potential to form a strong foundation for the future growth of the bank and give it a competitive boost.

        The panel of judges chosen from leading global industry devoted considerable time to understanding, assessing and evaluating each of the projects in detail against best industry standards, practices and benchmarks.

        Members of the panel include John Dahlberg, former executive vice president, OCBC Bank (Singapore), Alex Escucha, first vice president of China Banking Corporation, Philippines, Nick Dean, currently the chief technology officer at ANZ Bank, Australia, Pravir Vohra is chief technology officer at ICICI Bank, India, Neil Katkove, Asia Research Manager, Celent, Japan.

        The judges took four criteria into evaluation. They looked at the time and ease of the implementation, as well as the returns to the bank in the form of business value. They also required some qualitative analysis: sped up processes, improved efficiency, customer satisfaction, and others. Finally, technical innovation and system design were considered.

        The sole purpose of programme was to identify emerging best practices. However, many submissions in the inaugural program did not qualify.

        The Asian Banker was overwhelmed by the strong response it received from the financial services industry. Technology enhancement is clearly the backbone of the industry's progress, and the institutions in the region have shown their immense support for this programme.

        Through the evaluation procedure, the program has been able to identify new best practices in IT for financial institutions. These will become the new standards that banks will need to achieve in order to remain competitive as the banking industry evolves.

        Unfortunately, only a few projects met the The Asian Banker's minimum requirements. As this was the first year of the awards, many candidates did not adhere to our key selection criteria.

        However, the purpose of this programme is not just the awards, but also the identification of benchmarks and best practices for the industry. No doubt The Asian Banker awards programme would contribute to a growing understanding of the high standards needed in the financial services industry to attain excellence.