The independent not-for-profit standards association, BIAN (Banking Industry Architecture Network), today launched its ‘Coreless Bank’ initiative.

The initiative, spearheaded by a leading association of banks, solution providers and academic institutions will provide a platform for banks to collaborate with leading software vendors on developing a future-proof, regulatory-compliant and universally compatible banking infrastructure based on BIAN micro-services.11 BIAN members have already taken up support of the initiative at a pilot stage, including PNC, Citi, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bangkok Bank, CIBC, IBM, Technisys, Infosys, Finxact and Zafin.

The Coreless Bank initiative aims to promote a more efficient and effective approach to modernising banking software. The collaboration between initiative partners will make it easier for banks to source and adopt new business services. This will solve the perpetual challenges presented by legacy core infrastructure, and allow for faster, more cost-effective development of services that are more relevant for today’s digital-first customers.

The initial focus of the pilot is to develop API-based micro-services covering consumer payments, customer offers and consumer loans. BIAN’s Coreless Banking platform will permit the following functions:

·       Complete plug and play functionality, to ensure no impact to user experience

·       Fully deployable to the cloud, so users can take advantage of modern software development techniques

·        Bank consumable API interface to orchestrate (where necessary) BIAN APIs and reduce network traffic

·       Cross domain orchestration to also reduce network traffic

Commenting on the launch of the ‘Coreless Bank’ initiative, Steve Van Wyk, Chairman of the BIAN Board, said: “Banks have been limited by outdated core infrastructure solutions for decades. In an open banking world, technology is making it incredibly difficult and costly to innovate at the speeds required to fulfil customers’ needs. Migrating away from legacy technology is a big challenge. With BIAN’s Coreless Bank initiative, however, BIAN will help banks overcome these obstacles. We are putting banks in the driver’s seat, giving them a role in the development of services that are more relevant to the needs of their customers.”

Ian Gillard, Executive Vice President, Bangkok Bank said: “The future of banking is being reimagined as we face disruption from every angle. Consumer expectations are changing, new business models are shaking up the status quo, and it is becoming harder and costlier to update our technology systems in such a dynamic environment. We’re proud to be part of BIAN’s Coreless Banking Initiative and the broader community that is leading this industry development.”

Al Karim Somji, CEO of Zafin, said:  ”Coreless Banking can be a reality as proven in the pilot.  It requires commitment to open banking, investment and collaboration between banks, vendors and BIAN.  We are excited to be playing a role in BIAN’s initiative and are committed to making Coreless Banking a reality for our clients working within the BIAN ecosystem.”

An overview of BIAN’s Coreless Banking initiative will be shown at SIBOS on Wednesday 25^th September at 13:30 on the Discovery Stage. BIAN will also be demonstrating the plug and play functionality of the platform at its stand (31B) throughout the course of the event.