This includes the recent launch of T24 R09, the latest release of TEMENOS T24 (T24), signifying the first release of a set of Model Bank banking services, which have been aligned with the work being done through BIAN on the banking Services Landscape. Its work highlights the company's dedication to the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) model and supports BIAN's aim to help accelerate the adoption of standards for the industry.

BIAN was established in 2008 by leading global banks including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and ING and technology vendors including SAP, Temenos and Microsoft, to act as an independent body committed to the promotion and development of industry standards in support of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) roadmaps. The association's main objective is to ease the journey of banks moving to an SOA by building a community that will openly share domain and technical expertise in the application of SOA principles and methodologies.

Robert Hunt, Senior Research Analyst, TowerGroup, comments: "What we have today is a technology Tower of Babel - systems written at different times using different software structures and sometimes different programming languages. This results in systems that are difficult and expensive to maintain and prevents banks from implementing new products in a timely manner. BIAN represents a great opportunity for the industry to define banking services and develop a more standardised approach to software development. As we develop SOA standards and services, banks and vendors should be able to develop and maintain systems at a much lower cost. This first set of published deliverables and the alignment initiatives undertaken by members like Temenos is encouraging and will work to bring the benefits of BIAN to life for potential members"

Temenos is working to align its Model Bank with BIAN by adopting all of the standards that are defined and published through BIAN. As part of this and in line with thhe first set of BIAN deliverables published this week, it has adopted the BIAN Meta-Model and Service Landscape for the representation of banking business services, defined services around Business Partner and Payments and put in place plans to adopt the final Level 3 specifications for Business Partner and Payments from BIAN once they are released.

Commenting on the work Temenos has undertaken so far, Koen Van den Brande, Group Strategy and Marketing Director, Temenos, comments: "Temenos is dedicated to driving down cost of ownership and delivering a flexible core banking platform to banks across the world through T24 Model Bank. The work we have undertaken demonstrates our continued commitment to BIAN and positions us well to support our larger retail banking clients that are moving towards an SOA, a trend that requires standards to succeed. As a responsible member of the industry, Temenos has long believed in the benefits of SOA and we have invested heavily into our products to ensure they are SOA ready. We look forward to contributing to the development of further BIAN standards as they evolve and to promote their adoption through the continued progression of our BIAN Model Bank offering".

The work undertaken by Temenos and other network members in delivering these standards will help banks simplify the integration of systems and processes to improve efficiencies and meet cost reduction requirements, whilst also providing the structural flexibility to rapidly adapt to fast-paced market change. Following the first set of published deliverables, those in support of BIAN are confident that adoption of the standards will grow as the network grows and the value of BIAN is realised by the wider banking community.

At the Standardisation in Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) session at the Standards Forum at Sibos 2009 Hong Kong, Koen Van den Brande, Group Strategy and Marketing Director for Temenos will be speaking on behalf of the Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN). Van den Brande will cover a brief history of standards in the banking industry, including what other standards bodies have learned in terms of adoption. He will then lead a discussion with a number of representatives from the other standards organisations.