Standard Bank Group Ltd., the largest South African banking group by assets, has licensed core banking software from SAP AG and a commercial lending system from Fidelity National Information Services Inc.
SAP, of Walldorf, Germany, said Standard Bank is using services-oriented architecture to integrate 91 legacy core systems, with more than 240 interfaces that include 11 million customer records.
Gerhard Hafner, SAP's vice president of banking solution consulting for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, said that Standard Bank's initial project, the integration of customer information files in 37 countries, was completed last November.
Standard and SAP are developing a microlending system, Mr. Hafner said in an interview last week. "Microlending is the hottest business in South Africa," he said.
Fidelity, of Jacksonville, Fla., said Standard Bank selected its ACBS product suite for its global commercial lending.
Standard selected ACBS to provide a single global database for origination, loan servicing, trading, and business intelligence, Fidelity said last week.
Gregg P. Cerniglia, Fidelity's vice president of business development for its ACBS unit, said that Standard Bank is implementing the software in its London branch, its most important office for large corporate and middle-market lending, and that the system should be in operation by the end of the year.
The increasing complexity of corporate finance has increased banks' "reputational risk," requiring them to invest in sophisticated systems to manage the loans they hold as well as those they sell, Mr. Cerniglia said in an interview Monday. "They can't afford not to be able to be looked at as the lead on a credit."
