The Oracle Banking Platform is initially being targeted at banks in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US seeking to replace their legacy banking platforms. To date only UBank is live with the platform, although Suncorp is working on a rollout of the new platform as part of its bank simplification programme.
UBank has been the canary in the coalmine for the new system, transitioning 300,000 customers across to the new banking platform in August. UBank was initially set up on Oracle’s iFlex system back in 2009, but in the meanwhile NAB and Oracle have been working on the new platform using Oracle’s Fusion middleware software, which will also eventually become NAB’s core system.
NAB’s group executive in charge of technology, Gavin Slater noted that; ““For us, Oracle Banking Platform forms the foundation of our strategic banking transformation initiative. It will give us the agility we need to rapidly adopt new business models, bring new services and products online quickly and deliver world-class service to our clients across any channel they prefer.”
Ashwin Goyal, group vice president for Oracle Financial Services, told iTWire that the system was built from the ground up over the last three years using Fusion middleware and the Oracle database as a platform.
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While he would not be drawn on when Oracle might offer a cloud based core banking platform Mr Goyal said; “I’ve been surprised by banks in the last year at how those of a significant size – those that I thought would never have considered cloud – are thinking about it.
“I’m optimistic it will happen sooner rather than later.”
Mr Goyal said that in developing the system Oracle had been “looking through the lens of large banks” which had over the decades built very complex computing systems which worked but which were highly customised and very inflexible.
