Virtual, Islamic banking will drive growth: Oracle arm

HYDERABAD, DEC. 28:  

Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd (formerly i-flex Solutions Ltd) feels the emergence of new age banks that rely on technological solutions, the growing base of Islamic banking and demand from the North American banking industry for technology will drive growth for the company.

Chet Kamat, MD and CEO of the Oracle subsidiary, said banks in North America have started to look up. They have begun to focus on investments beyond regulatory and compliance-type schemes and started looking at what they need to do for growth.

“A large US bank signed up with us to implement Flexcube as their international platform. They look at their own markets but they are also looking overseas. So we are seeing traction in North America. We are in talks with chairmen and CEOs of banks in Latin American countries such as Chile, Columbia, Bolivia and Mexico,” he told Business Line.

The growth of Islamic banking around the world too is becoming a big phenomenon, he sad. “It is not just a niche thing. It has got huge scope for technology solutions.”

According to him, Latin America didn't really get impacted in the same way as the rest of the world when it came to the financial services sector. Banks in this region are upgrading technology. “We've had a couple of banks going live with the technology that they signed up for a year or two ago,” he said.

“A large part of Western Europe is facing issues with respect to what I would call an ageing and shrinking population. At the same time they are over-banked, so they are asset-heavy. They have to focus on reducing their cost significantly and do more things through direct and virtual channels,” he said.

The emergence of virtual banks with no physical presence too is on the anvil, and this will drive business for technology solutions companies, according to Kamat.

Citing the example of Jibun Bank Corporation, he said the bank offers the entire lifecycle of services on a mobile phone, including account opening, deposits, payments and card loans.

New banks

He further said the new banks that would start business in India must differentiate in order to be competitive and attract customers from existing banks.

“The emergence of mobility and all of the technologies around that would also drive the business. You start a process on one channel but you want to finish it on another channel. You need technology for this,” he said.

The company’s Flexcube has more than 500 banks as customers in 137 countries around the world. It has 11,000 employees, with the bulk of them based in India and teams in Singapore, in the US, Greece, the UK and Chile.

(Business Line / 28 Dewc 2013)

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