HSBC Mexico decided to upgrade its core banking applications in one shot, tapping CSC’s automated upgrade program to govern the implementation. To read full article click here.
If a bank is going for a “big bang” core systems upgrade, it seems appropriate to launch the new systems on July 4, even if the bank is based in Mexico and its customers don’t celebrate the United States’ day of independence. Before Mexico City-based HSBC Mexico (HBMX), part of HSBC Group (London; US$2.5 trillion in assets) went live with new core applications on Independence Day in 2008, it had been using a mix of legacy versions of core banking applications from Hogan Systems, which was acquired by CSC in August 1996.
According to Arturo Rivera Fermoso, IT director, core systems, for HBMX, the aging software prevented the bank from leveraging state-of-the-art hardware. “In some cases, the oldest applications within our Hogan suite prevented us from fully using the new capabilities of our hardware system,” he relates. “For example, we were limited to batch processing on some functions but wanted to move to all real-time and achieve 24×7 availability.”
Still, HBMX approached the possibility of upgrading the heart of its operations with caution. “Our core banking applications are mission-critical, so we had chosen not to upgrade to current application versions until the benefits of the upgrade outweighed the cost and risk,” Fermoso says, adding that the bank decided to take the leap in 2006.
Source: Bank Systems & Technology, b13.04.2009
Filed under: Banking, Mexico, News, Banking System, HSBC, Mexico, Private Banking, Retail Banking, Trading System
