NIB writes its own future

Noor Islamic Bank’s highly successful growth rate since its inception in 2007 highlighted the need to address the impact that manual operations had on its overall business. A combination of increasing transaction volumes, more complex financial instruments and reconciliations with smaller processing windows led the bank to conclude that it needed to update its reconciliation and exception management solutions.

A full service Islamic bank, noor (known as NIB) is based in Dubai an is now considered one of the leading banks in the UAE, providing a comprehensive, diverse and broad range of corporate, consumer and investment services.

However, its expanding operations and burgeoning customer base meant that its manual operations would no longer support the growing transaction volume and increased variety and complexity of the diff erent types of its reconciliation that the bank faced. As a result, nIB determined that it was detrimental to its long-term growth and goals, and that it needed to investigate options for new solutions.

It particularly sought an accurate, efficient system that would automate the entire matching and reconciliation process across its Cash nostro and ATM businesses. On top of that, it would also need to have the flexibility and ability to scale and grow with the bank, in addition to mitigating the risk associated with an increased number of manual transactions.

“Our previous reconciliation system placed limitations on our ability to grow,” said Jan Kirchhoff , NIB’s chief information officer. “With SunGard’s Ambit Reconciliation & Exception Management solution we are now able to reconcile data accurately and efficiently and keep up with our growing volumes. We see SunGard’s Ambit as a partner, rather than a vendor, that will help us to maintain our competitive edge,” he added.

NIB believes that Ambit Reconciliation provides the bank with the scalable platform, technology and tools necessary to support its current and future growth strategies and specific business needs. Beyond automating its reconciliation and matching processes, the technology and flexibility provided will help the bank improve its financial decision making capabilities, increase transparency into operations and improve overall competitive advantage in the region.

The solution can also help NIB reduce the number of exceptions, lower reconciliation errors and increase visibility to its intraday balance sheets and processes. It will also provide accurate reconciled data for cashflow products across its operations.