After remaining relatively low key about its activities,
US-based IT solutions company SunGard has launched an integrated
online and mobile banking platform, with the aim of allowing banks
to provide seamless banking services to customers through different
channels. David Hamilton, president of SunGard’s banking segment,
tells Meghna Mukerjee about Ambit MyMoney
Go deeper with GlobalData
Pennsylvania-headquartered software and
technology services company SunGard has not made much public noise
in the last few years on the retail banking front.
Now SunGard is ready to talk about its
products and plans after launching Ambit MyMoney, an integrated
online and mobile banking platform, which aims to enable banks to
create a customisable banking experience for its customers across
different channels.
Why the long silence?
“We have been in the background working away
with our customers and I think that strategy has paid off well
because I do think we have ended 2011 in a strong position,” says
the president of SunGard’s banking segment, David Hamilton.
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By GlobalDataGlobally launched on 23 November, SunGard’s
Ambit MyMoney allows banks to provide seamless online and mobile
banking services to retail and business customers.
Hamilton says that the current challenge for
retail banks in particular is to keep up with changing customer
demands, and multi-channel platforms such as MyMoney help banks
optimise their customer relationship by offering a “more convenient
experience that is customisable at the platform level and on an
individual user basis”.
“One of the big investments we made on the
retail banking side was to bring the MyMoney product to the market.
What Ambit does is bring together a single platform that allows
consumers to bank effectively, anywhere, anytime.
“MyMoney offers the bank the ability to serve
customers but in a way that allows it to be more seamless and
effective, which gives them the opportunity of driving growth and
increasing customer satisfaction,” says Hamilton.
SunGard’s MyMoney solution offers personal
financial management (PFM) tools that enable bank customers to
share financial savings goals over social media channels such as
Facebook and Twitter with selected friend groups.
The MyMoney tools also include modules for
secure feedback and a centralised message centre that is accessible
across all channels.
Hamilton points out that a solution like
MyMoney is “important” in the current economic climate.
“Part of what we are trying to do with MyMoney
is provide banks with a platform to engage their customers in a way
that they have historically not been able to – lift up the
engagement model and take it to a level that we believe customers
will respond to positively,” says Hamilton.
According to Hamilton, MyMoney provides
customers with capabilities over mobile banking that are available,
currently, solely over internet banking, such as “to start savings
goals and track their progress, or to understand where expenses are
going – product category by products category – and analyse that”,
explains Hamilton.
MyMoney gives customers access to a “secure
financial transaction set” across the mobile channel as well.
Ambit MyMoney is part of SunGard’s Ambit
Customer Management suite. With a client base including over 1,200
banks and 25,000 customers across 70 countries, SunGard also
provides banks with core banking solutions.
“Our investment in core banking in 2011 and
going into 2012 is to help banks address the increasing need to be
more competitive around their product innovation and pricing, and
also increasing the robustness of the balance sheet management
tools.
“What we are investing in right now is the
integration of our asset liability management and funds transfer
pricing tool and integrating them into core banking,” says
Hamilton.
Banks are currently sensitive about spending,
and mindful about where they are allocating capital, according to
Hamilton.
“If we look at the banking industry between
2000 and 2007, high performing banks anywhere had a ROI well north
of 20%. Subsequent to the financial crisis, we are talking about a
new ROI base case, around 4%-6%.
“We aim to bring the ROI up to something the
investment community will consider reasonable – the goal is
15%-17%. But the journey is difficult and requires a bank to think
very strategically.
“Basically there is a spending emphasis on
strategic cost management – how do I make the business more cost
effective and efficient?” says Hamilton.
With approximately 25 banks across 10
countries on its internet platform already, SunGard is in
discussion with approximately another 25 banks about Ambit
MyMoney.
SunGard has got the best response from markets
in the Middle East and Asia as both are “incredibly
technology-savvy”.
“When it comes to retail banking, consumer
behaviour has a great deal of influence on how innovative the bank
needs to be. Neither of the markets have the same legacy burden as
banks in North America or Western Europe – they can be quite agile,
flexible and innovative,” says Hamilton.
SunGard’s current agenda is to focus on
improving customer relationships and the ways in which banks are
looking to improve their customer efficiencies framework.
“Retail banks need to restore customer trust
and we do that through tools like Ambit MyMoney,” adds
Hamilton.
The current focus for retail banks is on price
optimisation as well, says Hamilton, adding, “gone are the days
when there is a one-size-fits-all pricing model”.
SunGard also offers risk performance
management solutions that are relevant in the retail banking
footprint.
“We have around 600 clients around the world.
A lot of what we do in the risk space, particularly in the Middle
East and Asia, are about helping banks overcome the regulatory
challenges.”
In terms of competition from other IT vendors,
SunGard “finds itself in a unique position” according to
Hamilton.
“Across the landscape we find competitors in
specific product categories. But we have best in class solutions
for risk management, performance management, operational risk
control, and so on. No other vendor has that same broad portfolio
addressing the more comprehensive needs of a bank internationally,”
says Hamilton.
Alongside having a foothold in US, Europe,
Asia, and the Middle East, SunGard has heavily invested in the
Chinese market in the last two years and is starting to see “some
really nice traction there”.
Hamilton says the market SunGard plans to
“spend more time developing” in 2012 is Brazil, adding, “We have
invested wisely and we are seeing the growth we were expecting to
see in the territories we have focused on.”
