Building the Perfect Bank

Publication: Bank Innovation
By Philip Ryan

BIAN is trying to build the perfect bank.

This week BIAN, which stands for the Banking Industry Architecture Network – will release version 3.0 of its Service Landscape, a “bank on paper”that covers all the major business processes of a bank – some 280 at this point.

The organization has just four employees, but you could be excused for thinking it was much bigger. Based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and headed up by Hans Tesselaar, formerly of ING Group, BIAN hosts three gatherings a year that bring together CIOs and senior tech staff from more than 20 of the world’s largest banks.

BIAN was formed in 2008, to create standardization in the financial services industry through service-oriented architecture. The goal of the company is to increase efficiency and interoperability among FIs. Membership skews European for now, with ING, ABN Amro, Rabobank, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Société Générale and UBS being just a few of the member banks. PNC was the sole major American bank for some years, but was recently joined by First Niagara. PNC’s chief information officer, Steve Van Wyk, is the chairman of BIAN’s board.

Additionally, nonbank players in the space such as IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Infosys, SWIFT and Sungard are members of the group in an advisory capacity.

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