Core banking implementation: the path to an accelerated go-live

What challenges do banks typically face when implementing core banking systems?

Udo Oehmig, CTO BANCOS AG: The most common pain point we see is that integration into existing system landscapes is massively underestimated. Banks often have IT systems that have evolved over 20 or 30 years – and every new platform has to fit into this complex network. As a result, what should be a straightforward project can quickly turn into a multi-year undertaking.

This makes it correspondingly difficult to forecast costs. Not because the core system itself is expensive, but because the integration costs only become apparent once you are well into the project. And that is a serious strategic problem: if an implementation takes two to three years, the market will have changed in the meantime. Banks need speed – traditional core banking projects often fail to deliver it.

We have seen this for ourselves with existing customers: legacy dependencies do not just slow down the roll-out; they also prevent a bank from operating in a truly agile manner afterwards.

How does BANCOS’s new platform simplify the technical implementation of a core banking system?

The key feature is that our system does not require the bank to shut everything down first. It runs independently alongside the existing core banking system – we call this a ‘side-car’ approach – involving a phased modernisation rather than a ‘big bang’. For the bank, this means there is no ‘all-in’ risk from day one. New products can be launched on the new platform whilst the existing system continues to run. This dramatically reduces the implementation risk.

All integrations are handled via modern, open APIs. This is not a proprietary interface that only works with us – any standard service that a bank already uses can be integrated.

Then there is the data layer: we enable data from the core banking system to flow directly into a data lake infrastructure. This is important because banks today want more than just a core banking system. They want to make their data usable for analytics, reporting and AI applications.

From an organisational perspective, how does the implementation process with BANCOS work?

Stephan Mann, Product Owner BANCOS Core Banking: We have deliberately designed the workflow as a structured onboarding process. The guiding principle of the process is that the platform integrates seamlessly into the existing system landscape and the external services that a bank already uses.

The first step is for the bank to hand over the key information. This includes, amongst other things, the style sheets governing the appearance of the customer-facing touchpoints, as well as details of the external providers to be integrated – such as the payment service provider.

Once this key information has been verified, the core system can be activated directly within the bank’s own cloud tenant. This means that the bank operates on its own infrastructure right from the start.

Pre-defined products represent another key step towards speeding up the implementation process. Standard products such as current accounts, savings accounts, fixed-term deposits and loans are readily available and may only require minor adjustments.

How does a bank benefit from this process when launching a core banking system?

Ideally, the initial implementation of the new BANCOS Core Banking system will be completed within a matter of weeks. Alongside this short ‘go-to-market’ timeframe, cost-effectiveness is, of course, a key consideration. As the effort required for integration, activation and product design is significantly reduced, implementation costs remain low – and, above all, predictable.

The benefits do not end with the go-live. New banking services and products launched after the initial set-up also reach the market much quicker. This enables a bank to test services, learn from the results and iterate – rather than having to plan every product idea around a project cycle lasting several months.