Finca Bank Georgia in digital banking system revamp
Finca Bank Georgia in concluding stages of system selection – digital revamp on the agenda
Finca Bank Georgia, an affiliate of Finca International, a global microfinance organisation, is looking to modernise its online and mobile banking systems.
The bank has recently issued a tender to find a new provider and software. Banking Technology understands that the selection is in its final stages at present, with contract negotiations underway.
Once the project commences, the delivery of all components should be completed within seven months, Finca Bank states.
The new solution will support the Georgian, Russian and English languages.
Project stages
The roll-out will be done in stages, “due to multitude of features and technical complexity of the internet and mobile banking applications”, the bank says.
Stage one will see the launch of the internet banking application for retail and corporate customers with all informational features and possibility to transfer funds between own accounts.
“This will allow customers to get used to new products and perform less risky operations before security modules will be fully implemented and integrated with online banking solution,” the bank explains.
An administrative module also will be implemented in this stage.
Stage two will involve the implementation and integration of security modules. By this stage, customers will have full functionality for day-to-day operations, such as fund transfers between accounts within the bank and other banks, treasury transfers, utility and bill repayments, mobile phone top-ups, card blocking/unblocking; standing order and direct debit registration, activation, deactivation, early loan repayments, and filling deposits.
Stage three will see the launch of the mobile banking application “with all required features and functionalities for users with Android and Apple mobile devices”.
Stage four will add a personal finance manager (PFM) tool in the online banking application for retail customers.
Finally, in stage five internet banking will be utilised as an additional point of sale by accepting applications for all existing loan products, possibility of deposit opening and new card ordering. Also, customer segmentation and marketing communication features will be enabled during this stage.
Finca: flexible finc-ing
Finca Bank Georgia received its banking licence in 2013. Prior to that, it had operated as a microfinance institution since 1998.
It has 40 service centres across Georgia.
The bank uses Oracle FSS’s Flexcube for its core operations, as part of a multisite roll-out across the Finca group. The multi-year project to standardise on Flexcube kicked off in 2008 and arrived in Georgia in 2013.
The bank also uses auxiliary software around the core from a local provider, Alta.
Server and storage hardware is fully virtualised (using VMware product) in primary and disaster recovery data centres, with the exception of core banking database servers. For these, it uses HP hardware.
