ORLANDO, Fla. – As Harland Financial Solutions prepares to mark its 10th anniversary, its president is offering some insights into what the company believes lies ahead for itself and the country as a whole.
Raju M. Shivdasani noted Harland Check Corp., which has 6,000 client institutions and $1.7 billion in annual revenues, has been working since April of 2009 to take the 14 companies that comprise it, many of them acquisitions, and create one enterprise-wide organization. He stressed Harland Financial is not looking to sunset any of its current solutions.
Meanwhile, Shivdasani suggested the current sluggish economy will remain so for a longer period than many expect, for as long as five years. He expects 200-300 financial institutions will continue to shut down operations – or have them shut down by regulators – each of the next several years, and what will emerge will be a two-class system. “I think there are going to be the very big mega-banks,” Shivdasani said during the company’s Connections Conference, “and I think there are going to be the smaller ‘purpose-built’ financial institutions that will be extremely focused on their core competency.”
Separately, Shivdasani said it is imperative for financial institutions to develop P2P solutions of their own to counter PayPal, and added Harland soon will unveil such an offering.
He further predicted that many of the ancillary providers of technology will be bought up by the core processors, including Harland Financial. And he added a prediction many credit unions will find most unwelcome, saying he believes institutions should “multiply by five” the level of compliance requirements they currently must deal with.
