Celebrating its 66th anniversary, Bank of Ceylon, Sri Lanka's leading bank, today announced it had completed the migration of 111 branches to the Fiserv technology platform on schedule.
The 111 branch milestone incorporates a third of the bank's branches, and consolidates five disparate legacy systems.
According to Mr. S.N.P. Palihena, General Manager of Bank of Ceylon, the Fiserv retail banking system provides the bank with a complete view of branch operations, products and customers - a view that was previously difficult to attain.
"We knew from our intensive testing and reviews that the Fiserv solution was a great fit for Bank of Ceylon and the world-class Fiserv implementation team gave us confidence that we could meet, and even beat, a very aggressive rollout timetable," said Mr. Palihena. "Achieving this major milestone of over 100 branches demonstrates the professionalism of Fiserv and the skill and commitment of the Bank of Ceylon project, IT and branch staff," he said.
Operating on an IBM iSeries platform, the Fiserv solution includes the ICBS (International Comprehensive Banking System) retail banking solution and CBS Branch Teller for teller and branch functions. Opting for a phased implementation, the bank's accounting operations transferred to the ICBS general ledger in the first seven months followed by the activation of the complete solution across 100 branches in July 2005.
"For Bank of Ceylon, Fiserv provides everything a Sri Lankan bank could want – a solid, proven product in Sri Lanka, a worldwide blue-chip client list, a highly professional team of people and a track record of implementing on time," commented Mr. Palihena. "Fiserv's professionalism and proven ability to deliver is unique in Sri Lanka."
Having reached 111 branches live, Bank of Ceylon is now targeted to reach the 200 branch milestone by the end 2005. This aggressive rollout schedule has not hindered normal business at Bank of Ceylon with the bank recently achieving a record-breaking Rs 200 billion in customer deposits. The bank also confidently expects to achieve ambitious 2005 profit targets of over Rs 3 billion by year end. These successes combined with the Fiserv rollout further consolidates Bank of Ceylon's position as the country's leading bank. Fitch also recently re-awarded the bank a AA(SL) rating.
"An enterprise wide implementation such as this can be disruptive to business and growth, but with the Fiserv rollout implementation methodology combined with the services of our well trained & dedicated staff, we have been able to sustain focus on maintaining and building our business while laying the technological foundation of our future growth and expansion," said Mr. Palihena.
Fiserv has been supporting financial institutions in the region for more than sixteen years with over 40 Asia Pacific banks and financial institutions using Fiserv solutions. Bank of Ceylon joins over 230 worldwide Fiserv clients and is the second Fiserv client in Sri Lanka.
"Sri Lanka is an important financial market in Asia Pacific and we are particularly pleased to partner with a leading financial institution such as Bank of Ceylon. The high levels of co-operation and partnership between all those concerned has enabled a smooth implementation and is a testament to the high quality & commitment of both organisations' staff," said Mr. Peter Hill, Managing Director of Fiserv Asia Pacific.