Month: December 2018

Document Software, a Path to an Ecological Banking Document Management

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Banks were among the early adopters of implementing document software in their banking document management processes.

One of the biggest changes that society has experienced in recent years is the awakening to the importance of the environment. Although there is still a long way to go, no one is indifferent to the effects of climatic change. Warnings that before were dismissed as apocalyptic hysteria are now being taken more seriously and there isn’t a citizen or company that isn’t adopting ecologically sustainable measures in their daily activities.

Proof of this is found in corporate social responsibility programs that are being announced by organizations of all kinds, new developments that have led to the rise of the technology known as Green IT and policies in which many companies are obligating their employees to adopt related to reducing printing and paper consumption.

In Spain more than 270,000 tons of paper were consumed last year and a large portion of this was devoted to printing and copying business documents. Many organizations from all sectors are now turning to technology to minimize this practice, while others have already been relying on document software for this for some time.

Banks profitability resulting from innovation

Banks and other financial businesses have been standard bearers in adopting emerging technologies and document software is no exception. Twenty years ago it was common to use pre-printed banking forms, static forms that didn’t allow hardly any modification and that consumed large amounts of resources in banking offices.

The most innovative banks opted for document software to resolve this issue. This technology allowed them to eliminate their use of pre-printed banking forms with applications that made it possible to easily design of any kind of form. Thus, thanks to the implementation of banking document management solutions, when customers requested bank statements, invoices or contracts, their data could automatically be merged with the appropriate forms and much more professional looking documents could be delivered.

This method of producing documents not only improved the image that customers had of the financial institutions with which they worked, but it also served to reduce the paper consumption and costs dedicated to these tasks.

It could be said that the banking sector was one of the first to implement ‘green technology’ to establish ecologically sustainable operating policies, banking document management policies which also increased employee productivity and profits.

Endless options for implementing software solutions in the banking sector

With the passage of time and given the positive results, the banking industry continues to consider Information Technology as an integral motor of its business. Hence, it has initiated projects including the most modern technologies. Server virtualization, adoption of service oriented architecture or opting for business intelligence initiatives are clear examples of the innovation that this sector is advocating.

In most cases, these innovations have not only meant optimization of internal processes in bank offices or increased profits, they have also led to adopting more environmental policies that reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption.

The adoption of banking document software solutions perhaps have contributed the most to banks maintaining environmentally friendly policies, not only for eliminating pre-printed forms, but also for the evolution of recent years that the banking sector has welcomed with open arms.

Banking document management software – A global solution

Financial organizations interact with their customers with printed documentation in their office networks, mass mailing and mass emailing information and using Internet portals. In everyone of these processes, quality document software can make a difference in making organizations more competitive and considerably reducing their costs.

If documentation is mostly printed at different delegations of a banking organization, a printing control system that can be installed locally or as a central server, can be a determining factor in fully optimizing the organization’s printing system. With the printing control software solution that modern document software provides, print quotas can be assigned to users and departments and detailed reports can be generated with which an organization can control the amount of resources it consumes in terms of hardware and supplies.

It’s only logical that being able to control the number of prints and copies will also encourage employees to personally adopt more responsible consumption habits, and as a consequence, the printing costs for the organization will be even further reduced.

Electronic banking and environmentally friendly storage

The Web also offers many possibilities and banks should take advantage of them to increase their productivity. It is much more efficient to send a mass emailing than to print hundreds of pages, batch them, stuff them in envelopes and mail them to their respective recipients.

Real-time document generation on the Internet is another advantage that document software provides. Previously, customers had to go to an office to get bank statements, where in the best scenarios they were printed and delivered in a few minutes. Now, they only have to access a bank portal to make their requests. And in a matter of a few seconds, they can see them on their computer screens, all in a manner that is environmentally friendly and profitable for the organization.

Once documents are generated and distributed, financial institutions must store them in the event that they have to be retrieved in the future. Storage has always been an authentic headache for any organization, especially for those that manage large volumes of documents.

Digitalization reduces the space formerly required for archiving paper. Combined with document management software enabling easy search and retrieval of the electronically stored information, an essential process is gained for achieving authentic ecologically sustainable and profitable banking.

By implementing document software the banking and insurance companies have given multiple examples for how document management solutions help saving costs and at the same time improve customer satisfaction, employee efficiency and being more responsible with our environment.

Transforming Banking Solutions Thinking Out Of The Box

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Bank Profile
Bank Sohar is a start up bank in Oman. Bank Sohars entry into the Oman banking sphere came about amidst much hype and fanfare. Bank Sohars IPO was oversubscribed more than 5 times even before the bank opened, revealing the Omanis expectations. With a strong group of promoters behind it, Bank Sohar now has an initial built up capital of 50 million Omani Rial (approx 125 million USD). Bank Sohar will cover the entire range of retail, corporate and investment banking services. Bank Sohar will focus on specific market segments and a phased approach to launching new products and services gradually evolving into a universal bank.

Key Business Drivers
Technology is viewed from 3 perspectives:

The demands that arise from the complexity of the operating environment created by urgent imperatives, risk mitigation drivers, sales roll-outs and so on cannot be ignored. Typically, deployment of solutions in such an environment translates into a period of about 18-24 months. The project can exceed this period, as well, if the architecture is complex and mired by inflexible legacy systems.

The imperat i ves, when the environment requires pure vanilla offerings and quick deployment schedules, are unique. For banks who want to synchronize technology and processes, BIAB offers solutions with which organizations can start leveraging technology benefits from day one.

The focus of the bank, that centres around absorbing best-in-class processes and banking practices, needs to be addressed effectively. Technology can help them compete aggressively with players in the international arena.

Solution Overview
Technology Players: Matching the Pace of Banking

Finacle Bank-in-a-Box (BIAB) framework is a new implementation paradigm that allows a bank to go live on Finacle core banking solution in a very short span. It is a pre-configured, fully integrated banking transformation solution based on its proven universal banking solution.

BIAB is an approach aimed at bringing down the implementation time and most importantly provides customers a best configured banking environment.

The bank wanted to implement the Finacle universal banking solution covering the functionalities of core banking, treasury, e-banking and CRM with interfaces to ATM, SWIFT, Oracle GL and RTGS/ACH apart from other third party products such as NetCast and Omnidocs.

Finacle had allocated four months to complete the project, however because Bank Sohar was a start up, it was engaged in its recruitment process which impacted the start date. The challenges included executing a project with key decision making personnel not on board from the beginning and basic infrastructure not in place at the bank’s site. The implementation was delayed by two months until February 2007, however, the deadline date had not changed as the banks CEO strongly requested that the original date of 1st April 2007, be maintained.

This posed significant risks, resulting from completing a four month project in less than two months, which meant that every activity would have to be watertight, without any contingency whatsoever. Thus, there was no scope for lags in any activity.

It was decided that Finacle Bank-in-a-Box would be deployed to save time and effort. Since this was a new bank, it was deemed that this would also add value in terms of providing a readily available base of best banking practices. The plan was to adopt a recommend approach rather than a requirement seeking approach.

Detailed project planning was done to carefully chart out every activity and crunch the activity to the bare minimum.

Core team training and Business Process Definition (BPD) traditionally done sequentially were now designed to be performed in parallel.

The BPD document which consisted of multiple modules and was traditionally signed off at the very end was now broken into multiple documents to facilitate quick sign offs after each module was completed.

To perform a complete but timely testing during System Integration Testing and User Acceptance Testing, Infosys recommended that the bank engage its Finacle Testing services unit to carry out this activity, which they did, ensuring timely completion.

Senior management commi tment Unequivocal commitment from the top management throughout the different phases of the implementation, paid off. It was defined in the project kick off meeting that all issues (on the banks side) should be escalated to the senior management immediately, which worked to ensure a disciplined and smooth implementation.

Core team training / BPD An 18-day workshop was designed with daily activities listed. Business owners responsible for sign offs for each of the days were also listed. Core training was planned to be performed during the first half of the day and the BPD immediately afterwards.

Benefits of Leveraging Technology

Bank Sohar core banking implementation (Phase1) was carried out before the bank formally opened its doors to the public within a record breaking timeframe of 56 days.

Was executed under a non-negotiable deadline committed to the bank

The retail loan module was not part of the initial project scope. However, 2 weeks from Go Live, the bank requested that at least one retail loan product be delivered as this was a basic requirement for local customers. Infosys took cognizance of the banks critical need and decided to meet it through innovative use of the corporate loan module, since a typical retail loan launch would have taken much longer. Infosys built in all the basic features of the retail loan product in the corporate loan module, positively impacting revenues from the loans portfolio for the bank.

A breakthrough decision taken, resulted in the actual revenue of the loans portfolio growing to over 10 times the expected target.

Banking Firm Jacobson Group Net Added New Professionals

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Jacobson Group (Jacobsongroup.net) is one of New York’s most prominent investment banking firms serving middle-market companies, recording several’s successful transactions in 20 years of service. Founded in 1989 in New York. Today, Jacobson Group has over fifty professionals to serve you.

Having no direct lending sources or investment capital affiliates, Jacobson Group provides unbiased guidance and an extensive range of services for middle-market companies planning to sell a company, buy a company or in need of capital resources. We represent only one side, your side. Imagine the advantage of tapping into the expert skills of a Jacobson Group Principal who knows both sides of a deal.
An important ingredient in the success of Jacobson Group is our offering personalized service to complete complex transactions. This is evident in our organizational structure: it is purposefully flat. Principals, supported by regional teams, and industry practice groups, work directly with clients to provide expert guidance from project inception to completion. There is no “hand-off” to a junior team; you can count on the advice of a Jacobson Group senior professional throughout your engagement.

Selling middle-market sized companies is always a challenge. Over its 50 year history, Jacobson Group has refined its processes to protect the confidentiality of the seller yet reach out to a huge “rolodex” of interested buyers in Europe and Canada. We tame the inherent complexity that is the nature of mergers, acquisitions and securing capital resources.

In today’s complex and evolving financial markets, we remove the burden of exploring specialized transactions. You and your senior management will focus valuable time on growing your company with a Jacobson Group expert on your team. Don’t enter a complex financial transaction without the best representation. Contact your local Jacobson Group Principal and start the process now.

About Jacobson Group Net, New York, USA
Jacobson Group is one of the oldest and largest middle market investment banking firms in New York. Jacobson Group helps owners of privately held companies navigate the complex process of selling your business, buying a company or financing a company while working relentlessly towards maximizing the after-tax value of each transaction. To ensure unbiased service to our clients, we’ve made a unique commitment to remain fully independent with no direct lending sources or investment capital affiliates.

Compliance Risk Lesson From Emilio Botin Abbey Santander Banking Group

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The importance of compliance with legal, regulatory, social, ethical and other standards faced by businesses is highlighted by the high-profile UK legal case Chagger v Abbey National plc & Hopkins (2006), where an Employment Tribunal made a ruling of racial discrimination and, following Emilio Botin Abbey Santander banking group’s refusal to comply with the Tribunal’s order to reinstate Mr Chagger, ordered Abbey Santander shares to pay the record-breaking 2.8 million compensation award. Abbey Santander Group (the UK bank soon to be re-branded as Santander shares price, and being a part of the behemoth Emilio Botin Banco Santander Central Hispano Group – BSCH) dismissed Balbinder Chagger from employment in 2006, asserting compulsory redundancy as the reason. Mr Chagger, on the other hand, believed that the actual reason behind the termination of his employment was race discrimination. Mr Chagger was of Indian origin. He worked for Emilio Botin Abbey Santander price in the role of Trading Risk Controller. He earned approximately 100,000 per annum. He reported into Nigel Hopkins.

In the UK, the Financial Services sector is highly regulated. Financial institutions face an abundance of standards to comply with concerning their numerous stakeholders (regulators, authorities, the public, employees, customers, suppliers, competitors, shareholders, investors, and others). Compliance with all of the standards is part and parcel of conducting business in the UK Financial Services sector; financial institutions need to devote sufficient resources and energies to compliance and to compliance risk management. Compliance failures, that are either detected by regulators during inspections or reported by aggrieved parties to the appropriate jurisdictions, can result in extremely high-profile consequences, as shown by Chagger v Abbey National & Hopkins (2006); the Employment Tribunal recorded an abundance of compliance issues and failures committed by Emilio Botin Santander Abbey and Mr Hopkins, some of which are outlined below.

Emilio Botin Abbey Santander had failed to comply with the UK statutory redundancy dismissal procedure; it had failed to notify Mr Chagger in writing of the circumstances leading it to contemplate dismissing him and asking him to a meeting.

Emilio Botin Abbey Grupo Santander had failed to comply with the guidance on good practices regarding Equal Opportunity training recommended by the UK statutory Code of Practice on Racial Policy in Employment. Mr Chagger had made efforts to address the issues surrounding his dismissal directly with Santander Abbey and Mr Hopkins, through the company’s grievance and appeals procedures. However, Emilio Botin Abbey Santander had not provided any Equal Opportunity training to the managers it had allocated to consider Mr Chagger’s issues; Mr Chagger’s issues were simply dismissed out of hand by each and every manager. Emilio Botin Abbey Santander banking group had also failed to comply with the guidance on good practices concerning monitoring recommended by the UK statutory Code of Practice on Racial Policy in Employment. The Tribunal found an abundance of monitoring failures, in addition to the failures to give serious consideration to allegations of race discrimination and to investigate them promptly.

Emilio Botin Abbey Santander had failed to comply with the Tribunal’s order to reinstate Mr Chagger (ordered to remedy the unlawful wrongful act of racial discrimination committed by Emilio Botin Abbey Santander and Mr Hopkins). In the UK, reinstatement is regarded as the primary and preferred remedy for an unfair dismissal, because it enables the aggrieved employee to continue to enjoy both the mental satisfaction and the economic benefits of his role in the future. Emilio Botin Abbey Santander refused to reinstate Mr Chagger and the Employment Tribunal was dissatisfied with the reasons it gave for refusing to comply.

Emilio Botin Abbey Santander had failed to comply with the Race Relations Act (Questions and Replies) Order 1977. The Tribunal found that Emilio Botin Abbey Santander’s reply to Mr Chagger’s race discrimination questionnaire was evasive, and that Emilio Botin Abbey Santander had failed in answering Mr Chagger’s questions.

Both Emilio Botin Abbey Santander and Mr Hopkins had failed to comply with UK law on employment. The Employment Rights Act 1996 requires the selection of an employee for dismissal in a compulsory redundancy situation to be fair. Compulsory redundancy selection criteria must be applied fairly; they must be both objective and measurable. The Employment Tribunal found, however, that the compulsory redundancy selection criteria Emilio Botin Abbey Santander had applied were both highly subjective and un-measurable.

Mr Hopkins had failed to comply with the expected behaviours of a reasonable manager. He was highly criticised by the Employment Tribunal for the manner in which he had applied the compulsory redundancy selection criteria to Mr Chagger. As an example, the Employment Tribunal found that he had scored Mr Chagger down for getting on with work and being self-reliant, a characteristic that the Tribunal thought that reasonable managers might well consider to be an asset for an employee in Mr Chagger’s highly paid and highly responsible position, and score him more highly for.

Emilio Botin Abbey Santander had failed to comply with reasonable good practices and safeguard controls expected in compulsory redundancy situations; that of ensuring more than one manager is involved in the assessing and scoring of each of the employees in the redundancy pool (a control to safeguard the fairness of the scoring and to reduce the risks of bias). The Tribunal found, however, that Emilio Botin Abbey Santander did not implement this simple control mechanism. Alongside other significant factors, Mr Hopkins was single-handedly able to recommend to Abbey Santander’s management to dismiss one of the two Trading Risk Controllers that he managed (Mr Chagger being one), was single-handedly able to put to Mr Chagger an offer to take up voluntary redundancy (Mr Chagger refused Mr Hopkins offer, and no such offer was ever put to the other Trading Risk Controller), was single-handedly able to conduct the compulsory redundancy scoring and assessment of the two employees in the redundancy pool, and was single-handedly able to reduce Mr Chagger’s scores to ensure that he would be the employee who would be selected for dismissal.

Emilio Botin Abbey Santander and Mr Hopkins both had failed to comply with the UK discrimination law; the Tribunal ruled that they had both racially discriminated against Mr Chagger.

Emilio Botin Abbey Santander highlights the significance of compliance risk and its potentially very high-profile consequences on an institution’s reputation. The profile continued beyond the Employment Tribunal stage for Abbey Santander. Mr Hopkins and Emilio Botin Abbey Santander s appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) against the original Employment Tribunal’s ruling of racial discrimination and against the record-breaking 2.8 million compensation award. In 2008, the EAT upheld the original Tribunal’s ruling that both Emilio Botin Abbey Santander and Mr Hopkins had racially discriminated against Mr Chagger. However, the EAT accepted Abbey Santander’s appeal on the compensation award and remitted it to the original Tribunal for reconsideration. The case was appealed and escalated to the Court of Appeal (UK’s second highest court). The Court of Appeal’s List of Hearings showed the appeal was heard on 7/8 July 2009. The Court’s transcript of the hearing and judgement were not available when writing this article. The 11KBW set of barristers’ chambers, who represented Emilio Botin Abbey Santander and Mr Hopkins, had reported that the Court of Appeal hearing was to be about compensation only (i.e., not about racial discrimination also). That would appear to imply that the wrongful act of race discrimination committed by Emilio Botin Abbey Santander and Nigel Hopkins was finalised by the EAT when it upheld the original Tribunal’s decision that Emilio Botin Abbey Santander and Mr Hopkins had racially discriminated against Mr Chagger, and that Mr Chagger had appealed against the EAT’s decision to remit the compensation award to the Employment Tribunal stage for reconsideration.

Successful Transformation Of Economic Facets Through Banking Initiatives

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In recent economic downturn, more and more banking and financial institutions are gauging their nuances and protocols to balance economy and foster its growth rate. These financial institutions are effectively participating in innovating advanced banking solutions to transform marketing facets across the globe. While developed economies have not yet fully recovered, these institutions have started taking steps to analyze the previous trends and scenarios that have not shown concrete results (outcomes in real-world conditions). In practical senses, economists and fiscal strategists are becoming increasingly active to establish competitive image. They understand the importance of quick actions. They know that they need to shift gears quickly to stay ahead, fostering the economic pylons.

It is true that the inherent strength of any country is its ability to take business initiatives, develop innovativeness, instigate critical thinking, and bolster financial structure. Banking policy makers and economists are continuously analyzing and comparing the growth drivers and key aspects that are affecting all these aspects. They are also emphasizing on asset management, loan products, and other facilities offered by the banking and financial institutions to businesses and individuals. This will help in assisting businesses and propelling better revenues. Also with an increased inflow of technological platforms, advanced networking techniques, communication protocols, and financial services, banks are empowering their infrastructures to provide unadulterated services.

To empower their position, banks are increasingly focusing on their communication and delivery structures and capabilities that can withstand fiscal jolts and maintain high growth rates. In pursuit of the same, they are looking for the following aspects to transform economies, such as:

1. supporting the growth of communities;
2. inspiring business owners;
3. empowering business initiatives;
4. elevating banking technologies;
5. managing competitive threats;
6. transforming existing BI;
7. streamline real-time information;
8. implementing real-time analytics;
9. building innovative banking solutions;
10. developing a sound infrastructure for inclusive growth.

These are the integral part of economic configuration and help a nation to perform better in harsh economic times. Moreover, banks and financial institutions are relying on technological advancement to support fiscal growth strategies. As technology has successfully penetrated the spheres of the society, banks are looking for its consistent usage to offer unprecedented mix of financial products. This will result in happier customers, increased data connection, managed services, information exchange convenience, better transaction security, greater value chain, and better approach to improved compliance.

Today, banking institutions are emphasizing on business intelligence and analytics for concrete innovation. This will help them to better segment their market and speed up their operations across multiple channels. They are also highlighting & discussing their endeavors in banking conferences and financial conclaves.