Belgian headquartered Financial Information Consulting Services Group, FICS, an international provider of financial reporting and electronic banking systems, says it has responded to huge customer demand over the past six months and released a Java-based internet version of its Corporate Bank for Windows electronic banking product. The company focuses exclusively on supplying banks with its two major products, its Abacus financial reporting package, and its electronic banking package, which handles cash management, custody and trade finance and retail banking. It has just signed its first UK bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland, for the internet-based product, Corporate Internet Banking, and says 90% of all its proposals for future business are for the internet-based, Java version, both for corporate and retail banking. The Internet or intranet product consists of a Java-based customer workstation which offers the advanced cash management functionality. On the customer side, the product supports transaction initiation and information delivery on multiple systems including Windows personal computers, Macintosh, Network Computers, web phones, PDA personal digital assistants and mobile phones. At the bank end, the system connects to standard servers running Unix and Windows NT, and also to a wide variety of databases and legacy systems. The Java front end provides a single look and feel for all screens. The product is also CORBA-enabled, and uses CORBA to manage which objects which user is entitled to use. The Corporate Internet Banking product naturally includes a variety of security features, including market-specific encryption technologies, dual authentication, optional token-based authentication such as smart card, and code-signing. FICS boasts a customer base spread over 50 countries, and big names include Coutts & Co, Banque Nationale de Paris, Arab National Bank, Westpac and National Australia Group and Bank of Boston. James Cronk, marketing manager for the UK, Middle East and Asia, says while most banks have some sort of electronic banking, many have old MS-DOS or Windows -based systems, often written in-house. With the current pressures on resources caused by Year 2000 and European Monetary Union problems, and the need to be ever more competitive at the same time, banks are beginning to turn to FICS with its proven track record and hand over their electronic banking requirements to the company. The group turned over $47m last year and is on target for $63m this year. It plans to float on Nasdaq and Easdaq in the fourth quarter of this year. Many of the company’s 600 staff are ex-bankers, enabling it to offer management consultancy as well as systems integration. Cronk says there are enormous opportunities opening up in South Africa, where the company has an initial letter of intent from one of the countries largest banks, and there is also great demand in the Far East for the product. The company is also talking to three of the four major banks in the UK. Its Belgian headquarters handles all the main research and development and product design, and then rolls the products out to its regional offices worldwide for localization. Corporate Internet Banking is available immediately.
