ChinaBank Savings, Inc. (ChinaBank Savings), formerly Manila Bank and now a subsidiary of China Banking Corporation (China Bank), has gone live on SunGard's TAPS investment administration and accounting solution for retail investment and trust banking.
ChinaBank Savings' TAPS implementation is part of China Bank's overall business initiative to expand its retail banking branch network by providing a standard platform across the enterprise. TAPS is a trust accounting system localized and tailored for financial services organizations in the Asia-Pacific region.
China Bank uses TAPS to help it achieve greater operational efficiency through automated workflows for both the main bank and the savings bank while also meeting the specific processing requirements of each entity. China Bank selected TAPS in 2001 for its trust banking operations. Following its acquisition of Manila Bank based in Manila, Philippines in June 2007, China Bank expanded its use of TAPS to the acquired bank, now called ChinaBank Savings. ChinaBank Savings has completed its migration of client, asset and balance data onto the TAPS platform. Both China Bank and ChinaBank Savings use TAPS for the overall processing of products of their trust accounting business, including investment management accounts (IMA), trust and other fiduciary accounts (TOFA), unitized investment trust funds (UITF), savings plans and provident funds.
According to Anna Maria Ylagan, head of ChinaBank Savings Trust Department, the savings bank required a sound platform to improve customer service, expand its client base and enhance productivity. "SunGard's TAPS will support our efforts to achieve these goals by simplifying the amount and process of clerical work involved in fund management and by helping improve the quality of management information, and most importantly, the quality of client service in today's competitive trust banking industry," said Ms. Ylagan.
Rene Sarmiento, first vice president and head of China Bank's trust banking group, said, "Using SunGard's TAPS across our multiple banking institutions helps strengthen our focus on operational efficiency through the consistent use of software across entities. It also provides s the scalability to more effectively serve individuals, families, business enterprises and companies across our deposit, consumer loans and trust services. The use of TAPS among our multiple banks further helps us leverage key strengths of each entity and gain synergies across the China Bank organization."
John Vander Vennet, managing director, Asia Pacific for SunGard's wealth management business, said, "With stronger-than-average growth in emerging Asian economies, it is estimated that compound annual growth in high-net worth individual wealth in the Asia-Pacific region will be 8.8% from 2008-2018, above the global average annual growth of 7.1%.* Given these growth estimates, area banks have a unique opportunity to serve an expanding group of clients. TAPS can help banks streamline their operational workflow to help them serve clients more efficiently, cross-sell products and services, and build and retain client relationships more effectively. Using TAPS, China Bank and ChinaBank Savings are embracing technology to deliver enhanced services that can help provide a sustainable competitive advantage."