Iran’s Top Bank Chooses BANCS Centralised Banking Solution

Bank Keshavarzi was originally created for the country’s Agricultural sector and currently has 1846 branches catering for some 5 million customers and 15 million deposit and loan accounts. This is expected to grow considerably to an estimated 24 million accounts over the next few years.

FNS Regional Vice President, David Parker, said Bank Keshavarsi will initially convert half of its branches to the new BANCS banking system – providing a new banking solution for up to 4 million customers and 12 million accounts in Phase One of the project.




The implementation will be conducted by FNS with the assistance of its Iranian partner, Padisar Informatics INC (Padisar). “FNS will supply the software and will develop the required customization, in addition to supplying the services of software engineers as required from its Philippines based software Centre of Excellence,” Mr Parker said.

Mr Nazari, member of Bank Keshavarzi's Board of Directors responsible for IT, described the upgrade as a sure means of providing better services to their customers. "Customers are our real assets and their true and total satisfaction has always been our aim and heartfelt desire. To be able to cater for their needs, we must undoubtedly utilize modern banking tools and practices, which can only be achieved through an integrated and comprehensive electronic banking solution,” Mr. Nazari said.

"It is this philosophy that lies behind Bank Keshavarzi's decision to select an integrated and total solution software solution, which we hope will realize our goals - with the participation of FNS and its local partner Padisar - so that all our esteemed compatriots can share in its benefits", he said.

Chairman of Padisar, Mr Rahmani, said that this project, initiated for the first time in the country, is undoubtedly indebted to the strong desires of the management of Bank Keshavarzi to offer new services of the highest standards to customers. He added that this project will have a profound effect on the Iranian banks’ approach to customers and the type of services they will offer.

Mr Rahmani also acknowledged BANCS’ unique capabilities, FNS’s professionalism and Padisar’s unique line of business, and knowledgeable staff who will be joining FNS in the implementation. This will result in customization and interfacing of a line of products, in particular some specific types of Islamic banking.

FNS Managing Director, Tony Ward, said Bank Keshavarsi’s decision to implement the award winning BANCS® banking solution would deliver the benefits of centralised banking encompassing full retail and Internet banking capabilities together with mobile and telephone banking and automation of those branches integrated to the core solution.

The bank is also implementing the BANCS Trade Finance, Treasury and Payments solutions, plus FNS’s proven Islamic banking solution.

“By implementing the BANCS solution, Bank Keshavarsi will be able to offer sophisticated deposit and loan products, in addition to providing foreign exchange and global trade finance facilities.”

The decision to implement the world class BANCS solution comes at a time when Bank Keshavarsi has achieved international recognition as Iran’s top bank for two consecutive years (2003 and 2004) and one of the top 10 banks in the Middle East in an annual survey by the respected Financial Times publication, The Banker.

Bank Keshavarsi was ranked just outside the top 20% of the world’s Top 1000 banks based on a combination of criteria including its level of Tier One capital, volume of assets, ratio of capital to assets, actual profit growth, ratio of profit to capital, output of assets and cost-revenue ratio.

Mr Ward said the selection of FNS as the successful tenderer recognises the company’s expertise in providing retail and wholesale banking solutions throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific where it has provided Islamic Banking solutions to a number of prominent financial institutions.

About FNS
Financial Network Services Pty Ltd (FNS) is a global leader in providing integrated, flexible and modular solutions for the financial services industry. The company has more than 100 corporate clients in over 35 countries, including some of the world’s leading financial services organisations of every operational size and complexity.

Through its flagship BANCS® banking solutions, FNS has won a reputation for increasing productivity, profits and flexibility while responding rapidly to market demands for new financial products.

BANCS is a sustainable Commercial Banking System that fully integrates Retail, e-Commerce, Commercial banking, Treasury, Trade, MIS and delivery channels in one homogeneous system.

The solution offers core banking functions in a multi-currency, multi-lingual environment which is totally independent of platforms, operating environments and RDBMS. Implementations include Windows, UNIX, and MVS utilising DB2, UDB, Oracle and SQL/Server.

FNS is one of a limited number of companies worldwide to hold a Business Application Partnership agreement with IBM and is a Microsoft Certified partner. It is also a key alliance partner with Hewlett Packard, Intel, Oracle and Sun Microsystems in various countries around the world.

FNS is a private company with 10 international offices and some 220 employees around the world. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the company is majority owned by its founders and staff, with a minority interest currently held by Australia’s largest investment bank, Macquarie Bank, through its subsidiary, Macquarie Direct Investments Limited.

FNS has offices in Sydney, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, London, Manila, Santiago, Seoul and Taipei and also operates through its strategic business partners and leading locally based systems integrators in many other countries. For more information visit: www.fns.com.au.

About Bank Keshavarzi
Bank Keshavarzi has more than 70 years of experience in agricultural financing, and provides its wide-ranging clients with a full range of modern banking services. Though it is chiefly a local bank, it has developed links in the international banking arena with some of the major banks across the world.

Bank Keshavarzi’s main advantage lies in it’s expertise in agri-financing which has developed into a key sector of Iran’s economy. Bank Keshavarzi aims to offer world-class services and products utilizing the state-of-the-art banking technology.

Bank Keshavarzi enjoys tremendous support and loyalty from its customers, in addition to the efforts of bank employees in various parts of the country and the support of officials including many regional and international agricultural and credit associations such as APRACA, CICA and NENARACA, of which it is a member.

About Padisar
Padisar Informatics is FNS’s partner in Iran. Padisar provides sales support, implementation support, and a 24 x 7 on call helpdesk.

Padisar Informatics was incorporated in 1996 with the aim of bringing the latest innovations in the field of Information Technology, especially for the banking and financial industry, to the market place. Since then, it has implemented various projects within the aforementioned industries and today is the only private entity which offers complete solutions to the banking industry and provides 24x7 support and services to its customers through a nationwide network of offices and representatives.

Over 150 well versed engineers are working within a dynamic and diversified organization comprising of e-banking, e-payment, network engineering, business development and maintenance and services departments to transfer the latest technologies to the banks and other financial institutions in collaboration with a number of international Business Partners, each of which with a well-known background for providing high quality and comprehensive business solutions to the banking industry.