X
Finance

Oracle targets big bank IT overhaul with new platform

The enterprise software vendor has released Oracle Banking Platform in hopes to capitalise on the trend of big banks undergoing major IT transformation projects.
Written by Spandas Lui, Contributor

Oracle has released a new banking platform aimed at big banks that are looking to undertake significant IT transformation projects.

Built from the ground up, the Oracle Banking Platform contains a suite of business applications for "the distribution and manufacturing" of banking products, along with financial services analytics tools. The vendor said that the product was in response to banks around the world looking to engage in major IT transformation projects.

The Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank (NAB) have been in the process of revamping their old core banking systems for some time. NAB is already on Oracle's newly released platform, as a test case for the software vendor to build up credibility for the product, according to Oracle.

NAB moved its subsidiary UBank to the new platform in August which has enabled real-time processing of funds between UBank accounts. Suncorp is another bank that has adopted the Oracle platform, and is currently in phase two of deployment.

The vendor is hoping that banks will be using this new platform for at least the next few decades, according to Oracle Financial Services Group Vice President Ashwin Goyal. The product, said Goyal, complements Oracle's existing Flexicube core banking offerings, and ease, banks through the process of replacing clunky and complex legacy systems.

"No software or technology vendor was filling the need of larger banks looking to modernise their banking architecture, to transform from legacy to new [systems] and allow them to really balance out the business risk of change, but also delivering value through the course of the program, itself," he told ZDNet Australia.

The first release of Oracle Banking Platform includes core banking deposits and loan capabilities.

Goyal said that the platform has a highly componentised software architecture, which gives banks flexibility and makes it easier for them to deliver products and services to customers through mobile devices.

According to Oracle, through pre-integrated enterprise applications and an underlying technology stack, the new platform can reduce the time needed for in-house integration and testing, which will lead to lower IT costs.

Editorial standards