MCB is the first bank in Mauritius to introduce mobile banking services and 96 per cent of its registered mobile banking users are already actively using the facility

The internet banking functionality of the Oracle FLEXCUBE Direct Banking platform was swiftly implemented in just over three months to meet the bank's go-to-market requirements. This was achieved without compromising on usability or security

The internet banking solution is now live across Mauritius and the Maldives and it will shortly be implemented in Mozambique

Since the roll out of the new solution, the bank has experienced a 24 per cent increase in retail internet banking and a 29 per cent increase in corporate internet banking usage

With the Oracle Direct Banking platform, customers can manage mobile top-ups and self-register for mobile banking services, as well as access their investment portfolio from their mobile device. To enable these feature enhancements, additional functionality was added to the base banking platform

The bank chose Oracle FLEXCUBE Direct Banking because of its depth of functionality - including its multi-country, multi-entity, multi-lingual and multi-currency capability - to support its varied geographical requirements

Oracle FLEXCUBE Direct Banking is helping MCB to meet its objectives to expand its existing customer base across geographies, lower service costs, and significantly reduce back office processes to reduce overall operational overheads

Oracle and MCB are extending their relationship with this addition of Oracle FLEXCUBE Direct Banking to the existing portfolio of Oracle products and services in use at MCB, including Oracle Relationship Database Management System (RDMS) and Oracle E-Business Suite

Jean-Michel Felix, Head of Group Audit and Program Director, The Mauritius Commercial Bank, Mauritius said: "The Mauritius Commercial Bank is the first to introduce mobile banking services into the country so it's vital that we offer the types of services that our customers are demanding with the technical platform to process the transactions. We chose Oracle as it has a proven banking customer base with a history of successful implementations in situations where integration with third party software was necessary. Oracle FLEXCUBE Direct Banking is enabling us to provide best-in-class mobile and internet banking services to all our customers."

Mr. Chet Kamat, CEO and Managing Director, Oracle Financial Services Software said: "Oracle is excited to be a part of the first mobile banking service available in Mauritius. Oracle FLEXCUBE Direct Banking's ability to scale and integrate with legacy software, means The Mauritius Commercial Bank can easily offer innovative new service offerings as customer requirements evolve. From a revenue perspective, MCB will benefit from being able to reach a larger customer base and the reduced operational overheads that the Oracle direct banking solution makes possible." 

Separately, Oracle today announced that BancABC has gone live with Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking Solution as a state-of-the-art banking platform on which to support its retail and corporate banking operations.

BancABC, previously known as African Banking Corporation, operates a number of sub-Saharan Africa banks in five countries; Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Tanzania and Mozambique. BancABC offers a diverse range of financial services including personal, business and corporate banking as well as asset management, stockbroking and treasury services.

BancABC needed to upgrade its banking platform in order to take advantage of additional features and the latest technology within Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking while also reducing maintenance costs and enabling it to take new products and services to the market in a timely manner.

The Oracle FLEXCUBE Solution has allowed BancABC to consolidate its banking environment and remove separate solutions focused solely on its retail banking branch by bringing all operations under one common banking platform.

The highly scalable infrastructure provided by the Oracle FLEXCUBE solution has enabled BancABC to integrate its retail and corporate banking operations into one robust banking platform with standardised business processes and centralised banking operations.

Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking Solution first went live in Zimbabwe in January 2011 and has now been rolled-out across all five countries of operation, with Mozambique the last to go live in November 2011.

The advanced open architecture of the Oracle FLEXCUBE solution enhances interoperability with third party systems, including its retail branch application, meaning the bank is able to get a clear picture of all its operations across multiple countries.

Due to visa regulations in the markets involved and particularly in Mozambique, Oracle undertook remote provisioning and implementation of the Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking Solution through a secure VPN connection, one consultant on site and the Technology Deployment Management Services team in South Africa.

Mr. Jerry Gezana, Group Head Process and Systems Innovation, BancABC said: "We have worked closely with Oracle for many years so it was an obvious choice for us at BancABC when we were looking to bring our retail and corporate operations on to one banking platform. In order to best service our customers across multiple markets, we needed to invest in a scalable and flexible core banking platform to reflect the current and prepare for the future market conditions. The implementation of Oracle FLEXCUBE allows us to do just that, and from our previous experience with Oracle we had no doubt we would have the solution that we needed to continue to successfully operate in such a competitive, growing market."

Mr. Chet Kamat, CEO and Managing Director, Oracle Financial Services Software said: "We are excited to see the successful go-live of Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking Solution across all five countries for BancABC. We faced a marked challenge with visa applications, but found a way to provision the solution through a VPN connection, and worked closely with BancABC to ensure nothing set back the project. Through using a standardised, centralised solution such as Oracle FLEXCUBE, BancABC has been able to integrate all its operations and provide a better service for its customers."