Wing Lung Bank

To further improve its operations, Wing Lung built an operation center in 1996 to enable administrators to centrally manage various back-office processes and services previously handled by individual departments and bank branches.

The company began offering online banking services to its customers in 1998, and introduced electronic securities trading service a year later.

Making security a priority
Wing Lung takes security so seriously that it removed all remote access components in its Internet banking system. The bank views this move necessary because it has identified remote access tools such as e-mail and telnet, to be the cause of most online security problems today.

And expect to see all critical security tools being deployed in the bank's network, including an intrusion detection system (IDS), protocol filtering and firewall, and RACF (Resources Access Control Facility).

An IBM-developed mainframe security software, RACF verifies user ID and password, and disables Web servers from generating non-Internet banking transactions. It ensures that access is given only to authorized resources and files.

In February this year, Wing Lung's relationship with IBM China/Hong Kong received a boost when both companies signed a three-year agreement to develop new applications for the bank worth US$1.8 million.

The deal aims to transform Wing Lung's products, services and customer channels, as well as support its expansion into mainland China, according to a media statement.

Under the agreement, IBM will deliver application development and management services through a new facility located at Big Blue's Shenzhen global delivery center. Jointly developed by both companies, the facility will aim to streamline and modernize processes and tools used to create the bank's software applications.