For the first time, the middle class in the emerging markets is buying everything that people in the rich West have long owned - cars, houses and televisions. This class is large and continues to grow by leaps and bounds.
According to World Bank forecasts, it is expected to triple from 400 million to 1.2 billion between 2000 and 2030. Naturally, banks are seizing this opportunity for new growth, because the new middle class needs accounts and cards, consumer credit, mortgages and shares. Some IT solutions, such as the afb Credit Management Solution, already support multiple languages and currencies as standard. But that's not the only reason. The use of a central solution is also worthwhile in traditional markets: locations can be connected quickly and cost-effectively and operating costs fall with each new country.
If resources are bundled in one place - whether at the bank itself or at a service provider - new virtualization or storage technologies, for example, can better exploit their advantages. Disaster recovery is simplified and fewer employees are required. Costs can be reduced even further if the solution is implemented close to the corporate standard, which needs to be defined globally. The afb Credit Management Solution can be introduced within a few months and operated cost-effectively because it offers proven processes that can generally be used immediately by credit and leasing companies.
Cutting out old habits
Country-specific features such as languages, currencies and legal requirements can be easily mapped in the afb system using parameters. "It only gets complicated when a country sticks to its historically grown legacy processes, which today make no sense from either a business or IT perspective," says afb CEO Jan Ph. Wieners: "Standardization therefore primarily means eliminating these cost drivers for good." Today's technologies make this possible without major risks because the migration can be broken down into small, manageable sub-projects.
According to a recent survey by the consulting firm Egon Zehnder, bank CIOs have already recognized that there is no way around far-reaching centralization. Efficiency is their most important challenge and the best way to achieve this is through centralization - this is a key finding. A study by the specialist publication Computerworld also confirms the trend. According to this, 37 percent of companies are currently centralizing their IT. And many are moving towards outsourcing their business processes at the same time. Most afb customers are also outsourcing their credit and Leasing software from the providerom operate and update.
According to a survey by HP, 44 percent of European retail banks are using outsourcing to change their business model. 40 percent hope to be able to provide services cost-efficiently and 36 percent want to minimize risks through outsourcing. All respondents expect support with consolidation, access to process-oriented expertise and proven methods ("best practices"). The requirements of German retail banks are likely to be particularly high in a European comparison as, according to the HP study, they want to expand much more in emerging markets than their neighbors.
