COUNTRY FOCUS: LEBANON
viewed the upgrade of our core system
as an ideal opportunity to strengthen our
regulatory compliance and fully prepare
for future changes in our industry.”
Superior customer experience
Since upgrading Fusion Equation, the
bank is taking advantage of cuttingedge
functionalities to enable new
digital banking services that customers
can access anytime, anywhere from the
device of their choice.
“With a feature-rich, reliable and ultrasecure
core banking system, we can
offer customers more convenient ways
to manage their finances,” said Toufic
Abi Farraj.
“Fusion Equation is helping us to expand
our existing customer base and appeal to
younger generation customers who prefer
to service their bank accounts online
and/or via mobile devices. Reaching out
to this growing demographic with new
digital services will help us to increase our
market share in the years ahead.
“We also expect to see a significant
improvement in the operational
efficiency of in-branch activities. With
ABOUT BBAC (BANK OF
BEIRUT AND THE ARAB
COUNTRIES)
Founded in 1956, BBAC is a leading
Lebanese bank offering a full range
of banking and financial services
to individuals and companies of
various sizes through a network of
45 branches and 85 ATMs. These
services include retail banking,
corporate banking, commercial
banking and trade finance, private
banking, treasury and capital
markets and Bancassurance through
a subsidiary. The bank operates
41 domestic branches and four
international branches located in
Cyprus (Limassol) and Iraq (Erbil,
Baghdad and Sulaymaniyah), in
addition to two representative
offices in the United Arab Emirates
(Abu Dhabi) and Nigeria (Lagos).
Fusion Teller at their fingertips, our branch
staff can offer relevant, personalised
support for every customer without having
to spend lots of time searching through
customer records. Lifting customer service
in-branch in this way will help us cater for
customers who prefer a more traditional,
hands-on banking experience.”
Next-generation banking
To develop the capabilities that will help it
bring modern, convenient and compliant
banking services to customers both online
and in-store, BBAC upgraded its core
banking system to the latest version of
Fusion Equation. The bank is also integrating
Fusion Teller across all branches.
“We appreciate our strong relationship
with Finastra, and truly value their expert
assistance and professionalism. With
Finastra’s help, we have established an open,
future-ready core banking platform,” said
Toufic Abi Farraj.
With the latest version of Fusion Equation in
place, BBAC aims to simplify and standardise
core processes, helping to optimise
operations, increase efficiency and keep
up with the rate of change in the market.
What’s more, harmonised and standardised
systems will make it easier for BBAC to adapt
to any future changes and mitigate business
risk generated by compliance issues.
Toufic Abi Farraj explains: “Fusion Equation
4.3 delivers a much more modern, and
intuitive user interface, which empowers our
staff to complete the work more efficiently
– boosting overall productivity. From a
product development perspective, the open
APIs built into the platform will enable us to
integrate our core system with other thirdparty
services, enabling us to develop a host
of new offerings for our customers.”
BBAC is also a long-standing user of Fusion
Trade Innovation, which it uses to drive more
reliable and efficient trade and supply chain
finance operations for business customers.
Successful upgrade journey
BBAC utilised the Fusion Advance service,
a proven upgrade methodology which has
allowed Finastra to successfully complete
many complex and diverse upgrade projects
over the last two years.
The bank finalised a two-phase process, with
the major upgrade finished by mid-year and
the final phase successfully implemented
in just over six weeks. Finastra worked
with BBAC through on-site local support,
underpinned by a flexible and scalable
remote team, who were available 24/7
during the upgrade.
The team followed industry best practice
and used innovative automated tools
to ensure an effective and streamlined
upgrade, which freed bank resources
to focus on business-critical operations.
Through the Fusion Advance approach,
BBAC worked with the Finastra Global
Services team to ensure that the upgrade
was delivered to a high quality, and also
slightly ahead of schedule, giving the bank
time to mitigate the risks and complete
testing before the regulatory deadline.
Toufic Abi Farraj said: “We completed the
upgrade of our core banking system on time
and on budget – enabling us to fast-track
product innovation. The expertise and the
comprehensive support of Finastra Global
Services enabled us to upgrade our system
seamlessly without causing any downtime.”
BBAC’s partnership with Finastra goes
back over 35 years: it was the first bank
in Lebanon to implement Finastra
solutions. Banks across the Middle East
soon followed suit once they recognised
that Finastra offerings could transform their
banking services.
“Finastra provided excellent guidance
throughout our upgrade journey,” said
Toufic Abi Farraj. “We are really excited
to embark on the next chapter of our
partnership with Finastra and continue
enhancing our systems and services
to deliver more value to our business
and our customers and take our Digital
Transformation journey to the next stage.”
Toufic Abi Farraj concludes: “With Finastra
supporting us every step of the way, we
are able to keep up with the rapid pace of
change in the banking industry and develop
the innovative digital solutions that our
customers love.” •
50 INTELLIGENTCIO
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