BIAN adds first Middle East member

December 9 & 10, 2013
Publication in Banking Technology, Finextra and Bobsguide

The Banking Industry Architecture Network has gained its first member in the Middle East with the addition of Commercial Bank of Qatar to its roster.

BIAN is an independent, member-owned, not-for-profit association, designed to build and promote a common architectural framework for banking interoperability issues. BIAN’s goal is to define SOA and semantic definitions for IT services in the banking industry to create a standard semantic banking services landscape.

Also joining as new members are the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, an R&D operation set up by the Reserve Bank of India, and Achmea, a Netherlands insurance provider. They will work with BIAN’s 42 existing members to build and promote a common enterprise architecture framework designed to resolve universal banking interoperability issues.

“It is great to add three more key members to our growing global network. This member signing is particularly significant for BIAN, as not only are we adding IDRBT from India and Achmea from Europe, but also our first Middle Eastern member,”said Hans Tesselaar, executive director, BIAN “The financial industry is changing at a rapid pace internationally. It is therefore important that BIAN works with global banks, banking software vendors and service providers to reduce IT infrastructure complexity — enabling financial institutions to adapt to this changing international landscape, respond more quickly to threats and opportunities and provide better services at lower costs.”

After a period of fast growth and expansion across the banking industry in the Middle East, the Commercial Bank of Qatar will now work with BIAN on infrastructural issues to avoid IT congestion, using the BIAN reference models to streamline the landscape and build a stable backdrop for future growth in the region.

“Commercial Bank of Qatar is an innovative organisation operating in a fast growing economy with the challenge of continuously improving its services and the digital experience of its customers,”said Harry Margaritis, head of IT enterprise architecture at the bank. “In this journey, having a technology landscape where information can be independently provided and composed, in an agile yet sustainable manner, is a prerequisite. We believe that the standardisation promoted by BIAN can drive the Bank into delivering even more groundbreaking products and services, and we are excited to be the first bank in the Middle East to join this organisation.”

The brief established for the IDBRT by the Reserve Bank of India is similar. It will be aiming to use BIAN’s framework to establish best practices across the rapidly growing and changing Indian banking sector. Shri B. Sambamurthy, director, IDRBT said: “Associating with BIAN will help us to participate in the evolution of banking standards and support the conversion to industry-wide best practices for Indian Banks.”

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