i-Flex solutions, the India-based supplier of back office systems to banks, announced today that Antwerp Diamond Bank (ADB) in Mumbai, a bank servicing the global diamond industry, had gone live with its flagship FLEXCUBE product. i-flex has also designed and deployed a data center for the bank in Mumbai.
Antwerp Diamond Bank has been successfully running on FLEXCUBE in Antwerp, Belgium for over two years and its New York office also runs on the application. i-Flex says Antwerp Diamond Bank has replaced its entire core legacy and front-end system with FLEXCUBE, incorporating the Core, Treasury, Risk Management, Trade Modules and Reporting & Management Information features. For statutory reporting to the Belgian central bank, Antwerp Diamond Bank uses the FLEXCUBE-FICS Abacus interface.
“Mumbai being one of the diamond hubs of the world is a very important market for us,” says Paul Goris, Director-General Manager, Antwerp Diamond Bank. “In 2002, when we wanted to launch our Mumbai operations, expanding the use of FLEXCUBE to our Mumbai branch was a natural choice for us considering the success of FLEXCUBE in our Belgian headquarters and New York office. Deploying FLEXCUBE has helped us seamlessly integrate the business processes of our Mumbai branch to offer an unprecedented level of service to our customers.”
“The Antwerp Diamond Bank is a very important customer and we are happy that we have been able to extend our partnership with the bank’s new Mumbai branch,” comments Rajesh Hukku, Chairman and Managing Director of i-flex solutions. “This successful implementation once again demonstrates i-flex’s leadership in providing end-to-end technology solutions to banking and financial sector”
i-flex also fine tuned the reporting for the bank according to the Indian Banking norms, risk reporting for Belgium and statutory reporting for the Reserve Bank of India to satisfy both the Indian and Belgian requirements.
Antwerp Diamond Bank NV (ADB) is an Antwerp-headquartered bank owned by KBC, which specialises in the provision of diamond finance and related banking services to the diamond industry and trade. It has offices in New York, Hong Kong and Geneva, as well as Antwerp and Mumbai.
i-flex has also announced that the Banking and Payments Authority of Kosovo (BPK), which functions as a central bank in Kosovo, has selected FLEXCUBE to centralize its banking operations. The Banking and Payments Authority of Kosovo was established by the UN Mission in Kosovo and is responsible for licensing and supervision of banks and other financial institutions in Kosovo.
“The BPK win is strategic for i-flex as we are entering a new territory. BPK already has seven banks under its purview and the number is expected to grow soon. As the banking sector emerges in this territory, FLEXCUBE is likely to gain entry in other banks as well as in banks from the neighbouring countries,” says N.R.K. Raman, Senior Vice-President, Global Sales, i-flex solutions. He added that “the results of evaluation by the UN team reinforces the choice made by other Financial Institutions in the region and globally in the fifty plus countries where FLEXCUBE is deployed.”
Hebros Bank, one of the five biggest banks in Bulgaria, has also selected FLEXCUBE as the technology platform for its retail banking operations. Hebros, formed by the Bulgarian National Bank via a merger of eight smaller banks, with disparate systems, is centralising all its banking operations on FLEXCUBE.
“We are happy that after a rigorous evaluation of many leading international products, Hebros bank selected FLEXCUBE based on the scalability and reliability of the solution, as well as its proven international track record”, says R Ravisankar, CEO, International Operations and Technology, i-flex solutions. V Senthil Kumar, Vice President – Europe Sales, i-flex solutions, added: “This order in addition to being significant in size, will also be a stepping stone for many more retail wins in Europe, especially Eastern Europe, where the market is still under tapped.”
i-Flex says FLEXCUBE has been ranked among the world’s top two largest selling wholesale back-office banking systems in the International Banking Systems (IBS) UK Sales League Tables for three years in succession (1999, 2000 and 2001). The product has also been ranked among the second largest selling retail banking systems in the world in the IBS Retail league Table for the year 2001. i-Flex says it has over 120 users worldwide. It includes a banking back office and transaction processing system and a multi channel e-finance platform that delivers services over the Internet.