BIAN further develops global banking footprint with four new members

International community welcomes two global banks to their ranks and celebrate a number of crucial community developments, including the introduction of a new membership category and inclusion in report from the Commission on the Structure of Dutch Banks

LONDON and FRANKFURT, 17th July 2013 — Today BIAN, the Banking Industry Architecture Network, welcomes four new members from across the globe to their community, including the group’s first French bank, Société Générale, leading Asian financial services group DBS, Allshare, a leading Dutch provider of secure banking solutions and EVRY, the largest IT company in Norway.

This brings the total BIAN community to 42 members: 19 banks, 22 technology providers and service integrators, and one academic partner, with a footprint in Asia, Europe, the U.S., Africa, Australia and the Nordics.

By joining BIAN, Société Générale, DBS, EVRY and Allshare will have the chance to work together with banks and IT providers from around the world, shaping the future of banking services technology. Not only will they benefit from the long-term goal of reducing IT development and integration costs, but also from connecting with the top IT architects in financial services.

These members join BIAN at a crucial time in the group’s development. January this year saw the community publish Service Landscape 2.0 (SL 2.0), a framework for banking system building blocks, designed to map out a bank’s IT infrastructure. The community is already working hard on finalising the next release of the Service Landscape (version 2.5), expected at the end of August 2013, which will feature 100 described service domains.

In further group developments, BIAN has also announced the introduction of an additional membership category for central and federal banks, opening up BIAN membership to another sector of the banking industry.

Hans Tesselaar, executive director of BIAN
commented: “The past twelve months have been incredibly important ones in BIAN’s history — not only have we grown substantially, from just 31 members in July 2012 to 42 members now, but we have also made significant steps in extending our global reach. As a community we look forward to reaping the benefits of our new members’ diverse knowledge of this space, in order to better shape our final Service Landscape; we look forward to sharing the complete SL 3.0 in Q1 of 2014.”

“The past months have also seen BIAN working closely with the Commission on the Structure of Dutch Banks as the Commission has sought to explore the benefits of an Enterprise Architecture in ensuring the stability of the Dutch banking sector. We are delighted that the BIAN Service Landscape has been identified by the commission as a key force in the promotion of Enterprise Architecture in the banking sector.”

Alain Benoist, global head of transformation, processes and information systems, Société Générale said: “The implementation of an enterprise architecture, enriched by internal and external communities, is one of the projects Société Générale is currently investing in. Following our strategy of normalisation and simplification, we are very proud to be the first French Bank joining BIAN and delighted to be part of the membership. We are convinced that the nature of the common work and shared information about the architecture vision will speed up our current tasks on the same topics, and continue to support our customer-oriented spirit.”

David Backley, MD, technology & operations, DBS Bank
also commented: “Placing customers at the heart of the DBS banking experience is one of our key strategic priorities. We recognise that service innovation is an important part of delivering a positive service experience. As a BIAN member, DBS will be joining a community of banks and service providers that have come together to share best practices and discuss important issues in technology architecture. This will allow us to continually improve our technology processes and platforms in order to delight our customers.”

Wiljar Nesse, head of the financial services business area, EVRY added: “For decades EVRY has worked on models and standards for the banking industry. For many years now SOA has been the preferred development methodology for the broad range of small to large sized Nordic banks EVRY serves. Our aim is to be an active participant in the drive for standardisation within the industry. We consider the BIAN community and its deliverables to be of strategic importance in our continued market-driven development and in our ambitions for lower time to market and reduced development cost.”

Ton Sleurink, founder of Allshare is looking forward to working with BIAN saying “The rapidly changing demand from customers for new financial services such as mobile banking, online financial planning, and online onboarding requires the integration of information from many different sources and information suppliers. As a supplier of standard banking and securities systems, we see that the ease of deployment and integration within the existing landscape is the key to success for new solutions. In Allshare’s opinion, the requirement for interoperability can best be achieved with industry standards. We are therefore very proud to be the first Dutch Banking Solutions Provider to join BIAN, and look forward to collaborating with the BIAN community in the realisation of these standards.”

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About BIAN
Established in 2008, the Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN) is an independent, member owned, not-for-profit association to establish 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. The community focuses on creating a standard semantic banking services landscape, while ensuring consistent service definitions, levels of detail and boundaries. This will help banks to achieve a reduction of integration costs and use the advantages of a service-oriented architecture.

Financial institutions, software vendors, and system integrators, along with technology partners, are invited to join the association and play a collaborative role with other industry leaders in defining, building and implementing next-generation banking platforms.

About Société Générale
Société Générale is one of the largest European financial services groups. Based on a diversified universal banking model, the Group combines financial solidity with a strategy of sustainable growth, and aims to be the reference for relationship banking, recognised on its markets, close to clients, chosen for the quality and commitment of its teams.

More than 154,000 employees, based in 76 countries, accompany 32 million clients throughout the world on a daily basis. Société Générale’s teams offer advice and services to individual, corporate and institutional customers in three core businesses:

  • Retail banking in France with the Société Générale branch network, Credit du Nord and Boursorama;
  • International retail banking, with a presence in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, in the Mediterranean basin, in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Asia and in the French Overseas Territories;
  • Corporate and investment banking with a global expertise in investment banking, financing and global markets.

Société Générale is also a significant player in specialised financing and insurance, private banking, asset management and securities services.

Société Générale is included in the socially-responsible investment indices FTSE4Good and ASPI.

For more information, you can follow us on twitter @societegenerale or visit our website www.societegenerale.com

About DBS
DBS — Living, Breathing Asia
DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia, with over 200 branches across 15 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS has a growing presence in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The bank’s capital position, as well as “AA-”and “Aa1”credit ratings, is among the highest in Asia-Pacific. DBS has been recognised as “Asia’s Best Bank”by The Banker, a member of the Financial Times group, and “Best Managed Bank in Asia-Pacific”by The Asian Banker. The bank has also been named “Safest Bank in Asia”by Global Finance for five consecutive years from 2009 to 2013.

DBS provides a full range of services in consumer, SME and corporate banking activities across Asia. As a bank born and bred in Asia, DBS also understands the intricacies of doing business in the region’s most dynamic markets. These market insights and regional connectivity have helped to drive the bank’s growth as it sets out to be the Asian bank of choice. DBS believes that building lasting relationships with its customers is an integral part of banking the Asian way.

With its extensive network of operations in Asia and emphasis on engaging and empowering its staff, DBS presents exciting career opportunities. The bank acknowledges the passion, commitment and can-do spirit in all of our 18,000 staff, representing over 30 nationalities. For more information, please visit www.dbs.com

About EVRY
EVRY is a leading IT company in the Nordic region. Through advice, technology and solutions, EVRY brings information to life, creating value for our customers’ business to the benefit of society. With a combination of extensive industry experience and a customer centric approach, as well as international capabilities and local presence, we help customers realise the full potential of IT.

EVRY has a team of 10000 employees and reports annual turnover approaching NOK 13 billion. The company is listed on the Stock Exchange and operates from headquarters in Oslo.
www.evry.com

About Allshare
Allshare is an innovative company that focuses on the development of software solutions for the financial and banking markets. We have long been a knowledge house related to the financial industry and have been active for 25+ years in both Private and Retail Banking.

Allshare has implemented its Private, Retail and eBanking solutions successfully with numerous banks and financial institutions, both nationally and internationally.

Allshare has an in depth knowledge of banking and securities products, functionality and processes, and the technology required for business critical online customer services and processing. As an innovative software company, we deliver smart solutions that bring our customers up to speed in today’s fast lane banking business.

Strategic partnerships are key to achieving our goals, and Allshare has signed strategic partnerships with companies who offer complementary solutions. Together we deliver integrated banking solutions that focus on customer convenience.

Allshare has signed a strategic Alliance with CGI, a company with 70.000 employees and active in 43 countries. CGI and Allshare now offer a Banking Platform as a Service running in a Private Cloud and recently closed our first deals.

With CGI’s alliance agreement we offer implementation scalability both nationally and internationally. For more information about Allshare please visit www.allshare.nl