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Finance

CBA real-time push gathers steam

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has migrated term deposit accounts onto its newly-built SAP-powered core banking system upgrade worth $730 million, with retail savings and transaction account migration slated for "later this year".
Written by Ben Grubb, Contributor

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has migrated term deposit accounts onto its newly-built SAP-powered core banking system upgrade worth $730 million, with retail savings and transaction account migration slated for "later this year".

Contactless card and reader

Contactless card and reader
(Credit: Commonwealth Bank)

The bank began the migration of its term deposit accounts onto the new system on the weekend of 13 and 14 March, according to CBA spokesperson Steve Batten. The bank confirmed the news to ZDNet.com.au after the Australian Financial Review reported on the migration this morning.

Batten told ZDNet.com.au that the bank would start the migration of its retail savings and transaction accounts "later this year". Those accounts were retail accounts, he said, not business accounts.

The migration of the term deposit had run smoothly, according to Batten.

"The launch of our new term deposit capability and the migration of our customers' accounts was preceded by rigorous planning, testing and dress rehearsals," he said.

A pilot program was conducted months before the launch to ensure successful migration. "Off the back of these preparations and the associated learning, we had a very successful migration," Batten said.

The migration allows for real-time term deposit transactions to occur within the bank, Batten said; however, inter-bank transactions would not be done in real-time yet. "Whilst CBA is moving to real-time 24/7 processing, until the other banks are in a similar position, inter-bank transactions will have to continue to be processed as they are today."

The SAP and Accenture-led project was to originally cost $580 million. A further $150 million was tipped into the project after CBA announced the acquisition of Bankwest.

In October 2008, the CBA said integration of both bank's IT systems would not occur until three years down the track (2011).

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