European banking conglomerate Fortis Bank has signed a deal to deploy Misys MidasPlus as a unified core banking system across its worldwide operations.
News of the investment - the largest yet for Misys' MidasPlus system - comes less than a week after Fortis reported back on a six-month review of its global business and IT strategy.
Alain Deschênes, appointed CIO at Fortis in February, says: "After having started an overall group architecture study codenamed Cityplan, we came to the conclusion that Misys MidasPlus, in combination with Misys' overall banking product strategy, provided us with a sound platform for our future."
Under the plans, MidasPlus with Global Processing will form the foundation of the bank's architecture over the entire corporate banking business, replacing the mainframe applications already in use at the bank's four largest worldwide operations. As well as increasing the sophistication of Fortis' global cash management services, the implementation is intended to deliver synergies between Fortis' commercial and merchant banking units.
The new architecture will also include commercial lending, syndication, project finance and financial messaging, provided by Misys Loan IQ and Misys Message Manager respectively.
An existing Midas user in several sites across Europe, Asia, and the US, Fortis selected MidasPlus after a competitive review.
Clive Pedder, CEO of wholesale banking at Misys Banking Systems, says: "The management of cash accounts and working capital is the cornerstone of corporate banking, upon which all other core banking products and services are built. Although many banks are thinking in the direction of a global core banking platform for corporate cash accounts, Fortis is leading the way in taking this to the next stage."