Projects

UniPay – The payments Hub that “Rationalized and Replaced” all the payments applications of the Bank.

UniPay consisted in the creation of an architectural vision for an “End-to-End” Hub dedicated to payment systems (from the front-end landing zone to the back-end downstream networks). It replaced several applications that were in use in the Bank, from money-transfer services to networking software products, fully integrating with all the online channels, both internal and external (Retail/Corporate/IndirectBanks).

The Solution was characterized by innovative batch and real-time components, which were able to simultaneously process, without interferences, multiple (bulk) or single orders (ordinary, urgent, substantial) during all the “Intraday and Overnight” sessions.

UniPay implemented and joined all the interbank standards (FIN MTs, FIN MXs, XML ISO 20022, ISO 8583, XML Path, etc) and the Corporate standards (XML ISO 20022, EDIFACT, etc). It also supplied the instruments necessary to define the data-mapping rules for internal proprietary formats.

The Hub interfaced with the Bank’s legacy applications and Core System, thus fulfilling the “regulatory and compliance” obligations.

It was connected to the different online channels of the Bank: Internet Banking, CBI (Italian remote banking service), Sub-system offices, External Services, Workstations for Corporate and Intermediate Banks, Interbank networks.

The entire system was developed with an extremely flexible and configurable proprietary framework, which allowed to adjust the workflow process by shaping it on the characteristics of each payment instrument, and on the “clearing & settlement” rules.

The Banco Popolare project involved over 1.800 Italian branches, and a very high daily traffic of orders.

The Project “Evoest Phase 1”, aimed at developing the foreign section of the Bank, included the installation of the Modules Letters of Credits, Guarantees, Collections, and Foreign Discount on the Pr.E.M.I.A. Platform, and provided for the integration of batch and online information system.

The Solution, which also included a web component, allowed the Bank to: optimize the activity of the various sections, integrate such products in the Sales Portal, use the central Encoder, rationalize the efficiency of the Goods Department (i.e. through the use of electronic bill books), review all the Forms integrated with the Bank’s subsystem, and provided for the integration of Swift Messages.

This Project was part of a wider plan on the development of the foreign section of Credem.

The project for Gruppo Banca Carige included the installation of the new release Pr.E.M.I.A. 3.0 which, in respect to the previous version already in use, offered new Modules, as well as many greatly improved features, such as Directional Statistics, Cash Management, Corporate Banking integration, Countries Embargo, online check on Interest Rate Restrictions to prevent Exploitation, a new Internet Banking version, Foreign Credit Transfers etc., Precious Metals Management, Development of Letters of Credit and Guarantees.

Moreover, the new release Pr.E.M.I.A. 3.0 offered several “Technological Pluses” on a variety of aspects, such as the Client’s Resolution optimized to a 1024 version, the use of Tab Sheets, TP lists and inquiries that can be ordered an extracted in an Excel format, the possibility to manage the prints in PDF format and to automatically insert the Bank logo, the possibility to edit Swift Messages, configurable Accounting, management of the Tracking function for the List of Operations, and other features.

The Project for Banca Carige involved a carefully planned migration of the 6 banks belonging to the Gruppo: Banca Cesare Ponti, Cassa di Risparmio di Savona, Banca CARIGE, Cassa di Risparmio di Carrara, Banca del Monte di Lucca e Banca Carige Italia.

The project was born from the desire to supply all the Client Banks of the Group with an innovative suite of products and services dedicated to foreign operations. The choice eventually fell on the Pr.E.M.I.A. Foreign Platform by Enterprise, as a national flagship product.

Pr.E.M.I.A. ensured to the Banks that implemented it a series of operational benefits and management facilitations that made it a flagship product, becoming a “best buy” for the Banks of all sizes operating in the field.

The replacement of the pre-existing software required a phase of in-depth analysis and its integration with all the features of the Informative System, merging the new Solution into the Host System. This approach guarantees lasting benefits because it doesn’t lead to a “Bank within the Bank” situation, as it has happened in the past, but uses the Services/Products of the generalized components (Registers, Sales, Conditions, etc.).

The request was to have the system ready to go live in 12 months. This made it necessary to carry out simultaneously the analysis and the development of the integrations with the Bank’s subsystems, and to support the working groups with a strict guidance, both on planning and quality control.

The project also included the customization of the Platform, necessary to better support the specific activities of the Banks belonging to the SEC Group.

Such improvements led to a general increase in the efficiency of the IT services supplied to the Banks, which consequently led to a decrease in costs and a reduction of the time-to-market product deployment, owed to the flexibility of Pr.E.M.I.A.

The project provided for the simultaneous activation of Banca Popolare di Vicenza and the other two Banks belonging to the same Bank Group.

The challenge was issued by NCBC, an Investment Company subsidiary to an important Arab Bank, the National Commercial Bank (NCB) in Jeddah which, already operating in the field of domestic training, underwent a development process aimed at increasing the range of products offered to its clients while remaining within the boundaries of Islamic finance.

During the second phase of this process the possibility emerged to implement margin trading, which would be offered to selected clients with different features as compared to those popular in the western world.

Sharia law doesn’t allow many of the possibilities available to traders, but thanks to our know-how in Islamic products we managed to ensure the operations while keeping within Sharia rules.

In the NCBC headquarters workshops were held on the subject of Margin Trading, aimed at giving the Bank’s personnel an overview of the techniques and methods used in Western Banks. Eventually we presented the final Islamic model, which could be offered both to Saudi and non-Saudi clients.

Our project, which also included organizational models pertaining to clients’ onboarding and the offer of Margin Trading products, was developed in the following six months and implemented in the preexisting online trading infrastructure that the Bank offered to its clients, and eventually started operating at the end of July 2015.

The new product covered every aspect of the process: the life cycle of the clients’ requests, the management of contracts, the activation of the client’s access to the platform, and all the operational features managed by the “Margin Engine”, aiming at supervising operational alerts and tests pertaining margin trading.

The project also included the development of auditing and report features, necessary to monitor the situation, both from an overall and a specific point of view.