CORE BANKING

UNION BANK OF
INDIA

CONTENTS

PAGE NO

1. INTRODUCTION

2. WHAT IS CORE BANKING

3-8

3. C.O.R.E BANKING SOLUTIONS

9-11

4. CORE BANKING IN INDIA

12-13

5. CORE BANKING TECHNOLOGY

PROVIDERS
6. CORE BANKING IN UNION BANK

13-18

19-26

AND SERVICES
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

27

8. CONCLUSION

28

Introduction

Type

Public

Industry

Financial
Commercial banks

Headquarters Mumbai, India

Key people

Mavila Vishwanathan Nair (Chair)

Revenue

15,277.42 crore (US$3.32

billion)[1]

Net income

USD 0.16 billion

Employees

25,630

Website

www.unionbankofindia.co.in

Union Bank of India (UBI) is one of India's largest state-owned banks (the government owns
55.43% of its share capital), is listed on the Forbes 2000. It has assets of USD 13.45 billion
and all the bank's branches have been networked with its 1135 ATMs. Its online Telebanking
facility are available to all its Core Banking Customers - individual as well as corporate. It has
representative offices in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Shanghai, Peoples Republic
of China, and a branch in Hong Kong.
2

What is core banking?

Banking the Customers way is called core banking.
Core banking is a general term used to describe the services provided by a
group of networked bank branches. Bank customers may access their funds
and other simple transactions from any of the member branch offices.
Many banks treat the retail customers as their core banking customers, and
have a separate line of business to manage small businesses. Larger
businesses are managed via the Corporate Banking division of the
institution. Core banking basically is depositing and lending of money.
Nowadays, most banks use core banking applications to support their
operations where CORE stands for "Centralized Online Real-time
Exchange".

This basically means that all the bank's branches access applications from
centralized data centers. This means that the deposits made are reflected
immediately on the bank's servers and the customer can withdraw the
deposited money from any of the bank's branches throughout the world.
These applications now also have the capability to address the needs of
corporate customers, providing a comprehensive banking solution.
Core Banking is the meeting point of the largest banking services segment
namely Retail and Commercial Banking, cutting edge Information
Technology and the ever advancing Communication Technology. It is the
heart of a modern financial service organization and is all about providing
the banking customers with the right products at the right time through the
right channels 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through a multi location, multi
branch network.

Normal core banking functions will include deposit accounts, loans,

mortgages and payments. Banks make these services available across
multiple channels like ATMs, Internet banking, and branches.

Core Banking:
The reason for calling it Core Banking System, after deployment, is the hart
or the Core of the Bank / financial institution. All entities that form part of
the eco-system of the bank / financial institution interact with. The entities
are;
* Bank employees head office, regional offices, branches etc
* Bank Management: executives / managers at respective locations head
office, regional offices branches etc
* Bank customers: Personal banking, corporate banking international
banking etc.
* Bank Auditors, internal and external auditors who need to verify systems
and procedures.
* Bank Regulators: mandatory reporting to central bank and other financial
bodies.
* Bank share holders: providing the desired return to shareholders from
banking operations.
For a bank / financial institutions the Core Banking system must address
the Core Business of deposits and loans and the same time, address the
work place needs of all above entitles at their respective locations.
Ingredients:
There are 5 ingredients that form part of the Core Banking system. These
are the essential building blocks for the entire bank / institution.

General Ledger:
The absolute Core is the General Ledger of the bank accordingly. The G.L.
system is which generates the financial statements for the entire bank and
provides any entity to monitor the financial health of the bank.
In a Core Banking System, this is achieved by deploying a centralized G.L.
System which provides for thousands of sub legers with. Level's start with
individual branch G.L. rolled up to regional G.L. with further rollup of all
regional G.L's to bank.

Customer Information System:

The next major ingredient of a Core Banking system is the Customer
Information System or CIS. A customer is identified by uniquely by his / her
CIS number and all information related to that customer (name, address,
phones, employment, credit history, relatives, family members, and
demographic data) is stored along with this unique number. All this is
stored in a centralized CIS system allowing the customer to visit any branch
to do business with the bank.

Deposit System:
The third major ingredient is the deposit system. The ability to process
various types of deposits is a must. These include current, savings, time
deposit and hundreds of variations in each of these. e.g. Simple current
accounts, current accounts with overdraft, cash credit accounts, variable
rate overdrafts, simple savings, multi-currency savings, time deposits, CDS,
variable rate time deposit, recurring deposits, multi-currency, time
deposits, and so on. This is required to handle the liability side of the bank
business.

Loan System:
The fourth major ingredient is the loan system. This system handles the
asset side of this business.
The loan process in a bank involves multiple stems. The loan appraisal and
sanction step, the disbursement and monitoring step, the non-performance
tracking step the recovery step and the closure. With authorized access,
any staff working in any branch around the country should be able to
retrieve the customer loan information on his terminal and help the
customer do a financial transaction. These financial transactions are
automatically sent to the bank General Ledger and they update the
appropriate credits and debits in the subsidiary ledgers in the General
Ledger.

Management Information System (MIS):

Once the core deposit and loan business transaction for all customers of the
bank are captured and appropriate General Ledger accounts are updated,
various users of the Core Banking System throughout the bank need to
know what is happening within the entire financial institution. As a result,
the fifth major ingredient is the management information system. This
enables everybody in the bank to obtain the relevant information from the
system in order to carry out their business effectively.
MIS is simple terms takes information from the General Ledger, CIS
Deposit, Loan Systems and present them to the bank.

New Components:
Besides the 5 major ingredients, there are optional components (like a car
with options like leather seats, flashing light etc) that can be added on to
the Core Banking Systems to help the bank staff uses them in a more
efficient manner, these include:

Delivery Channels:
All the 5 major ingredients of a Core Banking system can be operated by a
bank staff from any location in the country simple by using their terminal
at their workplace. Banks have started focusing on customer relationship
management, Customers can go to the branch, go to an ATM, call on the
phone, and log on to the Internet to do their banking transactions. They can
use one or more of these delivery channels (Called customer touch paints)
to conduct segment and decide on further investment design specific
products and services to promote such delivery channels.

* Branch Automation system

* ATM Switch and connected ATM
* Call center system
* Internet Banking System
Any transaction done by the customers in any of the above systems goes
and updates the Core Banking System like deposit or loan at that in turn
updates the Bank's G.L. in the Core.

What ingredients are not included in Core Banking?

Typically these systems are confined to a specific business department
within the bank. They are not Core because they do not affect all areas and
entities of the bank.
* Trade finance
* Treasure
* Credit Card
* Mutual Funds
* Stocks, Bonds
* External System
* Payment gateways
* SWIFT
* Shared ATM network
* World Wide credit card networks, maestro, electron etc
* World wide ATM networks plus, Cirrus etc and possibly other systems
that the bank may want to deploy in specific departments

C.O.R.E. Banking Solutions

What is Core Banking Solution ?

Core Banking Solution (CBS) is networking of branches, which enables
Customers to operate their accounts, and avail banking services from any
branch of the Bank on CBS network, regardless of where he maintains his
account. The customer is no more the customer of a Branch. He becomes
the Banks Customer. Thus CBS is a step towards enhancing customer
convenience through Anywhere and Anytime Banking.

10

How shall CBS help Customers?

All CBS branches are inter-connected with each other. Therefore,
Customers of CBS branches can avail various banking facilities from any
other CBS branch located any where in the world. These services* are:

To make enquiries about the balance; debit or credit entries in the

account.

To obtain cash payment out of his account by tendering a cheque.

To deposit a cheque for credit into his account.

To deposit cash into the account.

To deposit cheques / cash into account of some other person who has
account in a CBS branch.

To get statement of account.

To transfer funds from his account to some other account his own
or of third party, provided both accounts are in CBS branches.

To obtain Demand Drafts or Bankers Cheques from any branch on

CBS amount shall be online debited to his account.

Customers can continue to use ATMs and other Delivery Channels,

which are also interfaced with CBS platform. Similarly, facilities like
Bill Payment, I-Bob, M-bob etc. shall also continue to be available.
Bank is in the process of launching Internet-banking facility shortly.

All these aim to provide convenient, efficient, and high quality banking
experience to the customers, comparable to world class standards.

11

What are other benefits to the Customers ?

A CBS branch is like a Sales & Service Delivery Center. Back office
processes/activities are handled through technology at some other site,
called Data Center. Branch, therefore, has more time for serving customers.
This improves the quality and efficiency of the services rendered and the
customer is directly benefited by way of satisfying and happy banking
experience.
Since a CBS branch is essentially designed to focus on customer-interface
and customer service, the special lay-out and ambience of the branch is
made to provide a convenient and delightful banking experience. The
Customer Service Representatives / Executives at the branch are specially
trained to understand, facilitate and deliver banking services efficiently and
effectively.
We wish our customers happy banking.
Core banking solutions are banking applications on a platform enabling a
phased, strategic approach that is intended to allow banks to improve
operations, reduce costs, and be prepared for growth. Implementing a
modular, component-based enterprise solution facilitates integration with
a bank's existing technologies. An overall service-oriented-architecture
(SOA) helps banks reduce the risk that can result from manual data entry
and out-of-date information, increases management information and
review, and avoids the potential disruption to business caused by replacing
entire systems.
The advancement in technology, especially internet and information
technology has led to new ways of doing business in banking. These
technologies have cut down time, working simultaneously on different
issues and increasing efficiency.

12

The platform where communication technology and information

technology are merged to suit core needs of banking is known as Core
Banking Solutions. Here, computer software is developed to perform core
operations of banking like recording of transactions, passbook
maintenance, interest calculations on loans and deposits, customer records,
balance of payments and withdrawal. This software is installed at different
branches of bank and then interconnected by means of communication
lines like telephones, satellite, internet etc. It allows the user (customers) to
operate accounts from any branch if it has installed core banking solutions.
This new platform has changed the way banks are working.
Gartner defines a core banking system as a back-end system that processes
daily banking transactions, and posts updates to accounts and other
financial records.

13

CORE BANKING IN INDIA

The major objectives of bank automation are better customer service,
flawless book keeping and prompt decision-making that leads to improved
productivity and profitability. The concept of bank automation started in
the year 1981, but it was during the period 1984-1987 banks in India
started the branch level automation, making use of the then available
MSDOS based stand alone computers. This initiative was taken by the
banks on the basis of First Rangarajan Committee report on bank
computerisation submitted in the year 1984. ALPMs (Advanced Ledger
Posting Machines) were the fashion in those days. However, the pace of
bank automation was very slow in the banks primarily owing to the lack of
trade union consensus on bank automation.
Another committee was constituted in 1988 under the chairmanship of Dr.
C Rangarajan, the then Deputy Governor of RBI to slate down a perspective
plan on automation of banks for a five year period. This paved way to the
implementation of multi-user Total Branch Automation packages running
on a LAN (Local Area Network), either on a Netware or a UNIX operating
system. With the implementation of TBA, banks started to offer the
facilities of exclusive Customer Terminal, Single window transaction, online and off-site ATMs, Tele-Banking etc.
But with the advent of new generation private sector banks in India
during 1994-1996, the real era of bank marketing started and these banks
started to offer any where and any time banking facilities to its customers.
This was possible for them mainly owing to the fact that they opted for the
implementation of a WAN (Wide Area Network) based centralised banking
solution rather than a LAN based branch banking solution to network their
limited number of branch outlets.
The old generation banks in India hesitated to follow this banking fashion
on account of its large network of branches on one hand and the then
prevailing exorbitant IT cost on the other hand. But with the globalisation
and liberalisation of Indian market and with the enactment of TRAI (with a
mission to create and nurture conditions for growth of telecommunications
14

in the country in a manner and at a pace which will enable India to play a
leading role in emerging global information society) during the late
nineties, there happened a drastic reduction in IT cost.
Improved telecommunication facilities and reduction in hardware as well
as networking cost changed the mind set of the banks in India to try the
CBS option. This also equipped them with the required technology leverage
to compete in the Indian market by offering the similar technology
products and services, as those offered by their new generation
competitors.

Core Banking and Run the Bank are synonymous for most part. Core
Banking is the meeting point of the largest banking services segment
namely Retail and Commercial Banking, cutting edge Information
Technology and the ever advancing Communication Technology. It is the
heart of a modern financial service organization and is all about providing
the banking customers with the right products at the right time through the
right channels 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through a multi location, multi
branch network.

15

CORE BANKING TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS

Any technology platform which is positioned to support core banking
operations, needs to address a set of mission-critical criteria, including:
Reliability
Scalability
Availability
Manageability
Security
There are many service providers for banks these days which build
technologies and softwares for banks to perform tech banking. Below is a
table of these such service providers.
Overview of Core Banking Solutions and their providers
Package

Provider

Avaloq Banking System

Avaloq Group

BankFusion Universal Banking

Misys

Misys Equation

Misys

Misys Midas Plus

Misys

Finacle

Infosys

Loan

FERNBACH Software

CFT-Bank

Center of Financial Technologies (CFT)

Lending Solutions

Indus, a business unit of R

Systems International Ltd.

Alnova Financial Solutions

Accenture / Alnova

COBIS (Cooperative Open

Banking Information System)

COBISCORP

16

TCS BaNCS

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Bankway

Fidelity National Information

Services (FIS)

Corebank

Fidelity National Information

Services (FIS)

SAP Transactional Banking

SAP AG

FLEXCUBE

Oracle Financial Services Software

Hogan

Computer Sciences Corporation

Insite Banking System

Automated Systems, Inc.

Intellect Core

Polaris Software Lab Limited

ICBA

Infopro Sdn Bhd

Profile (software) (formerly

Sanchez Profile)

Fidelity National Information

Services (FIS)

SAB / SAMIC

SAB

Signature (software)

Fiserv

Systematics

Fidelity National Information

Services (FIS) (formerly Systematics, Inc/
Alltel)

TEMENOS T24

Temenos Group

CoreSoft, SuVikas

VSoft Corporation

There are different solutions for large and small scale banks. In this project
we are going to explore both with the HCL, Infosys and Tata Consultancy
being the service providers.

17

HCL
HCLs expertise in core banking encompasses the whole gamut of
functionality, be it single customer view, checking accounts, back office
transaction processing for lending, funds transfer, risk, regulatory
reporting, collection monitoring or any other niche/ generic trait.

Services
HCLs core banking team has successfully accomplished a number of large
project assignments for global banking majors in varied areas like
application development, development of online and batch interfaces to
other landscaped applications and their seamless integration into the
overall application firmament.
With a proven track record in application interfacing / integration with
plethora of upstream and downstream applications HCLs end-to-end
services encompass design, development, testing and test automation and
also provide application enhancement and crucial maintenance support.
Apart from these service offerings, the experienced techno-banking team of
HCL also provides high end solution consultancy for core banking with an
underlying capability to create and service the financial products required
by varied targeted customer categories. These are in the spaces of
application migration, data conversion and big bang as well as phased
implementation focusing on modular business coverage, to name a few.
Such initiatives harness the entire banking domain and technological
expertise of the entire HCL team - a team with a proven track record in
delivering quality performance and services with aggressive timelines,
across multiple streams running in parallel, often creating from scratch the
environments for development and implementation.

18

Partnerships
HCLs partnership with leading Core Banking vendors like SAP, Oracle and
Misys is leveraged to provide intricate product customization and multilayered implementation initiatives across the world for leading banks.
HCLs development partnership with SAP is a stellar example of such grand
alliances. This partnership focuses among other things, on global core
banking product development initiatives in India, USA and China which
encompass Governance, Risk and Compliance too. This ever expanding
partnership will soon cover other niche areas like value engineering,
sharing best practices at both sides.
Under Oracles Partner Program, HCL is recognized at the highest level of
partnership i.e. the Certified Advantage Partner. HCL has been an Oracle
implementation partner since 1998. HCLs Oracle Practice is an integrated
services group, providing technology-based business optimization on
Oracle Enterprise software products and on Oracle Technology Platforms
for a large number of Oracle products in areas including core banking,
beside Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Fusion Middleware and
Oracle Database. HCLs Oracle Lab is a joint endeavor by both companies to
develop vertical centric, pre-configured solutions and provide product
demonstrations to global clientele.

19

HCLs partnership with Misys commenced in

2007.

The scope of partnership includes implementation of various Misys

products in Core Banking, Commercial & Corporate Banking as well as
Capital Market Services. The partnership concentrates on product
enhancements and implementations in Asia Pacific and Australia
geographies with blueprints being drawn to extend the coverage both
geography and product-wise.
Axon, the newly acquired SAP consulting wing of HCL brings new
capabilities to the market with a truly global delivery model providing full
lifecycle suite of services with unique value propositions.

20

FINACLE FROM INFOSYS

Finacle core banking solution is a comprehensive, integrated yet modular
business solution that effectively addresses the strategic and day-to-day
challenges faced by banks. It is highly parameterizable providing that
much-needed flexibility to innovate and adapt to a dynamic environment.
The solution has an integrated CRM module enabling banks to offer a rich
and differentiated value proposition to customers. The layered Service
Oriented Architecture (SOA), STP capabilities, Web-enabled technology and
24X7 operations ensure multi-channel, multi-country and multi-currency
implementations. The functionality-rich modules in the solution provide
banks with a varied palette of features to continuously innovate on their
product and service offerings. From the services innovation perspective,
Finacle offers a comprehensive and unified customer repository with
capabilities to educate and empower customers. With Finacle core banking
solution, banks can meet the challenges of managing change, competition,
compliance and customer demands effectively.

21

Key Modules

Enterprise Customer Information

Consumer Banking

Wealth Management

Corporate Banking

Trade Finance

Islamic Banking

Functional Services

Reusable Business Components

Accounting Backbone

Infrastructure

Business Benefits
Differentiated Product Spread
Finacle core banking solution offers an unlimited palette of features for
banks to design and deploy products for varying market segments. The
product bundling capabilities of the solution offer a wide range of
possibilities for banks to create products with innovative features. The
facilities provided for differential pricing, channel rules and customization
through Finacle Studio the scripting engine, empower banks to
continuously innovate and extend their suite of products, across segments.

22

Agile Operations
The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) enables the IT team at the bank to
effect changes without touching the base code, ensuring lesser vendor
dependency and faster adaptability to changing business conditions.

Robust Cross-sell Framework

The CIF and CRM capabilities in Finacle offer a unified view of the customer
across the entire solution and across multiple back-end applications,
enabling the bank to view the customer from a completely informed angle.
This empowers banks to effectively manage customer relationships and
aggressively explore cross-sell opportunities.
Increased Operational Efficiencies and Productivity
Finacle core banking solution supports business event automation and
process orchestration, thus eliminating manual tasks and reducing process
time. The elimination of error and data redundancies also results in
increased branch productivity. Straight Through Processing (STP) abilities
enhance reduction in turnaround and processing time, increasing output
and enabling speedy completion of tasks.

23

CORE BANKING IN UNION BANK OF INDIA

The Union Bank of India was built up in twentieth century and declared
open by the Father of the Nation, Mahatama Gandhi. The bank with its
efficient value-added services, sustained growth, consistent profitability
and development of new technologies bank has ensured complete
customer delight, living up to its image of, GOOD PEOPLE TO BANK
WITH. Bank is offering credit cards, home loan, union Demat, Kisan ATM,
International debit card, online tax payment facility, Railway e-ticketing
kiosk, etc., services to its customers through core banking solution.
The Union Bank of India has 2261 branches out which 1031 branches are
under CBS. Presently 939 ATMs spread out across India both Onsite and
Offsite. All the ATMs are inter-connected through the Banks ATM Switch,
thus facilitating on-line operations in case of CBS customers. The Bank is a
member of Cash Tree consortium and also has bilateral arrangement with
State Bank of India, enabling the Banks ATM cardholder access to over
20000 ATMs across the country. UBI Net connects 65 Offices and 984
branches located in 323 centers, facilitating speedier transmission of MIS
data (Network Map). The network also facilitates the implementation of
Core Banking Solution, apart from DEMAT services, Cash Management
services, fund transfers, messaging system, etc. The Bank is using VSAT
network for connecting branches and ATMs wherever leased line
connectivity is not feasible. We have 590 VSATs operational, connecting
194 branches/extension counters and 316 ATMs.
Adjust, Adapt and Change. That is the message that technology has sent
across to modern day banking. As technology ingrains itself in all aspects
of a Banks functioning, the challenge lies in getting adequate returns from
these investments in technology.

24

TECHNOLOGY
Union Bank of India has accepted this challenge and has positioned itself
to opportunities that technology has thrown open. The opening up of the
economy together with near total decontrol from the regulatory
authorities has added impetus to our efforts. The transition from
traditional banking to technology banking has already begun and a
number of technology projects are under way and also envisaged for the
future. The present and proposed IT initiatives of the Bank encompasses
the following:
All the 2531 branches of the Bank are now under CBS. Leveraging on the
CBS infrastructure Bank has centralized back office operations including
clearing, account opening, statement generations etc. in over 30 centres
This level of computerization has been possible because of the concerted
efforts of 55 Regional Computer Cells. As the branches are far spread out
the benefits of technology have now truly percolated to rural and semi
urban areas also.
Forex operations are fully computerized at all 69 Authorized Dealing
branches. This facilitates submission of various statutory returns
minimizing the chances of default besides ensuring proper monitoring of
international operations.
The Bank has set up a strong ATM network to extend the reach of banking
services to the esteemed customers. Presently over 1200 ATMs spread out
across India both Onsite and Offsite. All the ATMs are inter-connected
through the Banks ATM Switch, thus facilitating on-line operations in case
of CBS customers. The Bank is a member of Cash Tree and NFS consortium
and also has bilateral arrangement with State Bank Of India, enabling the
Banks ATM cardholder access to over 20000 ATMs across the country.
The Bank is issuing International Debit cards under Visa tie-up, thus
offering global reach to its customers. All the ATMs of the Bank also accept
Visa transactions.

25

Internet banking services of the Bank offers variety of features to make the
Banking a pleasure. Some of the services offered online are single view of
all the accounts, balance enquiry, account statement, transaction history,
transfer of funds to self as well as third party accounts, request for cheque
book, request for pay order/ DD etc.
Apart from the regular banking services as above, Internet Banking also
provides other value added services such as online ticketing of air & rail,
online tax payment, online trading of shares, online bill payments, online
Demat information, online LC opening etc.
Telebanking has been introduced at 19 important centers for customers of
CBS branches where facilities like balance enquiry, statement over fax, last
five transactions etc. are available.
Bank has also introduced SMS banking services and is providing both Pull
and Push services. Customers are now able to get alerts for all transactions
happening in their account.

The service branches in about 40 locations fully computerized and

networked to our WAN facilitating fast electronic transmission of data.
Activities like clearing, account opening and statement printing etc. have
been centralized at these centers. This has greatly speeded up realization
of collection instruments and availability of float funds.
The Banks Payment Systems Gateway is in place with all the requirements
that RBI has stipulated and PDO-NDS is operational from the Payment
Gateway. The Bank has extended RTGS and NEFT facility to all CBS
branches.
The Banks Payment Systems Gateway is in place with all the requirements
that RBI has stipulated and PDO-NDS is operational from the Payment
Gateway. The Bank has extended RTGS facility to all CBS branches. The
Bank is also fully geared up for launch of SFMS at selected branches.

26

UBI Net connects all the Offices and branches of bank located in 2500+
centres, facilitating speedier transmission of MIS data (Network Map). The
network also facilitates the implementation of Core Banking Solution,
apart from DEMAT services, Cash Management services, fund transfers,
messaging system, etc.

The Bank is using VSAT network for connecting branches and ATMs
wherever leased line connectivity is not feasible. We have over 1000
VSATs operational, connecting CBS branches/extension counters and
ATMs.
Voice over IP between Administrative offices, Instant file/ Data transfer
and corporate E-Mail, LAN is installed in all the administrative offices and
important CBS branches.
Swift facility is available at 69 centers enabling faster transmission of
messages pertaining to international financial/non-financial transactions.

27

CORE BANKING
Union Bank Of India has successfully implemented Core Banking Solution
as a part of Long term IT strategy. The Bank has already rolled out all its
branches covering over 100% of business under CBS. CBS system supports
all retail and corporate banking activities including ATMs, Internet
Banking, SMS Banking and Telebanking. Core Banking Solution has
enabled customers to do trouble-free transaction and it is boon to
customers as they are able to do 'Any Time, Any Where, Any Mode'
banking. CBS has provided customers with best of Bank's products and
accuracy in data transaction. This will enable Bank to give faster delivery
of services across multiple channels of servers. Customers can use any of
the channels available viz., branches, kiosks, ATMs, Telephone Banking,
Internet Banking for their banking needs.The Bank's management
information systems have now become enabled with the Core Banking
System in place since the data now ends centrally. Business intelligence
tools are able to analyze the data for decision support in a faster & more
accurate manner. CBS will provide the customers a single view of their
accounts on a real time basis.
One of the biggest challenges for Finacle was ensuring straight through
processing (STP) of most of the financial transactions. With the UNION
BANK OF INDIA group having several companies under its umbrella,
Finacle needed to seamlessly integrate with multiple applications such as
credit cards, mutual funds, brokerage, call center and data warehousing
systems. Another key challenge was managing transaction volumes. UNION
BANK OF INDIA Bank underwent a phase of organic and inorganic growth,
first by acquiring Bank of Madura followed by a reverse merger of the bank
with its parent organization, UNION BANK OF INDIA Limited. The scalable
and open systems based architecture, enabled Finacle to successfully
manage the resultant increase in transaction levels from 400,000
transactions a day in 2000 to nearly 2.1 million by 2005 with an associated
growth in peak volumes by 5.5 times. With Finacle, the bank currently has
the ability to process 0.27 million cheques per day and manage 7000
concurrent users.
28

Over the years, the strategic partnership between UNION BANK OF INDIA
Bank and Infosys that started in 1994 has grown stronger and the close
collaboration has resulted in many innovations. For instance, in 1997, it
was the first bank in India to offer Internet banking with Finacles ebanking solution and established itself as a leader in the Internet and
eCommerce space. The bank followed it up with offering several eCommerce services like Bill Payments, Funds Transfers and Corporate
Banking over the net. The internet is a critical element of UNION BANK OF
INDIA Banks award winning multi-channel strategy that is one of the main
engines of growth for the bank. Between 2000 and 2004, the bank has been
able to successfully move over 70 percent of routine banking transactions
from the branch to the other delivery channels, thus increasing overall
efficiency. Currently, only 25 percent of all transactions take place through
branches and 75 percent through other delivery channels. This reduction in
routine transactions through the branch has enabled UNION BANK OF
INDIA Bank to aggressively use its branch network as customer acquisition
units. On an average, UNION BANK OF INDIA Bank adds 300,000 customers
a month, which is among the highest in the world.

29

Channels

Share of Transactions
March 2000

Share of Transactions
March 2004

Branches

94 %

25 %

ATM's

3%

43 %

Internet &
Mobile

2%

21 %

Call Centers

1%

11 %

Reaping The Benefits

A powerful, scalable and flexible technology platform is essential for banks
to manage growth and compete successfully. And Finacle provides just the
right platform to UNION BANK OF INDIA Bank thus fueling its growth.
The bank has successfully leveraged the power of Finacle and has deployed
the solution in the areas of core banking, consumer e-banking, corporate ebanking and CRM. With Finacle, UNION BANK OF INDIA Bank has also
gained the flexibility to easily develop new products targeted at specific
segments such as UNION BANK OF INDIA Bank Young Stars- a product
targeting children.

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UNION BANK OF INDIA Bank is today recognized as a clear leader in the

region and has won numerous accolades worldwide for its technologydriven initiatives. In 2003, the bank received the best multi-channel
strategy award from The Banker magazine and this year it was rated as the
2nd best retail bank in Asia by The Asian Banker Journal. The bank has
effectively used technology as a strategic differentiator, thus not only
redefining the rules of banking in India, but also showcasing how
technology can help in transforming a banks business.
Union Bank Of India Online Services are available through the Internet.
Internet Banking is the facility which allows the customer to do banking
Transactions Through The Internet. Union Bank Of India Online Banking
offers a convenient way of banking to the customers and his banking needs
can be sourced without him physically visiting any of the branches, some
times right at his business place, residence, market or even while traveling.
Union Bank Of India Online Service is available to the customers of Core
Banking Branches of the Bank.

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Services offered through Union Bank Of India Online Banking are:

Account Information :
The user can get the information of the operative accounts, deposit
accounts, loan accounts and all other accounts.

Transfer Of Funds :
Under this option the user gets the facility to transfer funds between
different accounts.

Bills :
This option is meant to facilitate payment of bills.

Requests :
A variety of request options are available to the user under this
module. All the requests are to be attended end to end by the
Relationship Manager of the branch.

Mails :
Every user of Union e-banking Retail service is linked to a
Relationship Manager who looks into the mails and requests made by
the user. For this purpose the user is provided with a mail option,
which he can use for communicating with the Relationship Manager.

Trade :
The trade module gives query on status and history.

Limits :
The limit module enables the corporate to query upon the various
limits sanctioned to it by the Bank. The corporate also gets the status
of utilization against each of these limits both in rupee terms and in
percentage terms.
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Currency :
All the transaction options available in Union e-Banking corporate
module of Internet baking are in Indian rupee INR only.

Uploads :
The Union e-Banking corporate allows bulk upload of both debits and
credits type of transactions. The corporates can use this facility for
salary disbursements, dealer credits and dealer debits where the
debits and credits are intended to several accounts at a time.

Customization :
This option enables the user to customize the Internet Banking
options

Activity :
The option enables the user to query on his own activities

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Bibliography

1)http://www.hcltech.com/financial-services
2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_banking
3)http://www.capgemini.com/services-and-solutions/byindustry/financial-services/solutions/banking/core_banking/corebanking-system-services/

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Conclusion
In todays time where every minute gone by is money spent people
need banking services that are instant and every where.
Core banking simply means technology driven banking which maked
life simple.
Core banking makes banking convenient.

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