The new 'BANCSR core banking solution was developed and implemented by Financial Network Services (FNS) of Australia and a team of systems integrators from across South East Asia.

This week's milestone was achieved in just over 12 months and included complex customisation to provide Shari'ah Banking which will be available on the new system by June 2004.

FNS Managing Director, Tony Ward, said the project represented more than 3,000 man-days of development by more than 80 FNS staff and contractors from Sydney, Jakarta and Manila plus a team from IBM Global Services, all of whom worked alongside Bank BNI to complete the project.

"This collaboration has produced one of the most sophisticated and modern banking solutions in South East Asia including the successful remote development of Shari'ah Banking by FNS's software development centre in Manila," Mr Ward said.

BNI's Director of Operations, Dr. I. Supomo, praised the considerable efforts of both Bank and supplier staff in achieving the launch, saying that the advanced architecture of the BANCS solution provided BNI with a number of new capabilities.

These included sophisticated customer relationship management (CRM), streamlined work processes brought about by improved branch automation, tighter control over Risk Management capabilities with centralised auditing of all operations from BNI's head office in Jakarta, and the ability to rapidly respond to customer needs by deploying innovative new banking products.

The new BANCS system is operating 24/7 in one of the Bank's flagship branches and will be rapidly rolled-out throughout greater Jakarta during May and June. It is anticipated that the entire national network of some 840 BNI branches, will cut-over over to the new system progressively over the next 12 months.

Mr Ward said the BANCS project would allow Bank BNI to become more competitive in the Indonesian and Singapore markets, prior to its rumoured partial privatisation later this year.

"The scalability and other benefits of the BANCS solution will also put BNI in a strong position to pursue possible merger plans which would allow the combined entity to achieve even greater economies of scale," Mr Ward said.

The BNI project is one of several projects being conducted by FNS in the region, which has implemented BANCS across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Europe cementing FNS's position as a leading regional and global supplier of banking solutions.

"BANCS has already proved itself as the benchmark integrated banking solution across multi platforms and is a clear leader in its support of customised Shari'ah and Islamic banking solutions and the regulatory requirements of key Asian countries," Mr Ward said.