Four new major players join BIAN’s member community as two new board members are appointed

The Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN), a not-for-profit association that builds banking technology standards, announced the appointment of two new figures to its board of directors – joining from Bangkok Bank and UBS – as well as four new members to its wider community.

BIAN is expanding its global presence with the addition of four international members into its standards ecosystem. Joining from the US are community-oriented bank, First Niagara, and CSC, a leader in information technology services. They are accompanied by Asia’s global investment bank, Nomura.

US-based organisations First Niagara, and CSC join the network to drive banking innovation with the support of BIAN’s architecture framework. In working with BIAN, financial institutions and service providers have a safe place to exchange information and knowledge, supporting the sector’s transition to newer, non-proprietary technologies.

BIAN has also signed its latest academic partner Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). They are now working together to establish how best to include the BIAN framework into projects and course offerings for CMU’s Masters students in Information Systems and Management (MISM).

Inder Koul, Chief Information Officer, First Niagara: “At First Niagara, we pride ourselves on putting our customers at the center of all we do. Our technology initiatives are structured to support those goals, simplifying our customer experience to deliver superior products and services. Our BIAN membership provides us access to an additional set of industry standards and resources that reflect best practices from member banks.  We believe this helps to accelerate our development cycle and prevents any over-reliance on one solution. We look forward to the value this partnership will bring us.”

Venkataraman Bala, CTO, Banking & Capital Markets, CSC: “Joining the BIAN community is an important commitment to delivering more efficient, standardised and open solutions to clients.  Taking a collaborative approach across the industry will undoubtedly achieve quicker and better results for everyone involved.”

Alongside member growth, BIAN is pleased to announce two new additions to its board of directors – nominated by UBS and Bangkok Bank. Stephan Murer, Group Technology Officer, UBS AG and Ian Guy Gillard Executive Vice President, Bangkok Bank, were elected on April 29^th during BIAN’s General Assembly, bringing with them a wealth of experience to expand BIAN’s presence in different global regions, including APAC.

Having joined UBS AG in November 2013, Stephan Mureris responsible for architecture, research and development. Previously, Stephan served in various roles for Credit Suisse AG, including the prominent post of Chief Architect – a position he has held since 2000.

New board member Ian G. Gillardis an executive vice president at Bangkok Bank in Thailand. Ian has been with Bangkok Bank since January 1997 and has responsibilities in the Technology Division for Development, Enterprise Architecture and End User Support at the bank. His current technology focus areas include Mobile Banking and enabling mobile capabilities for the bank’s employees.

Hans Tesselaar, executive director, BIAN: “BIAN is experiencing tremendous growth, with our global membership continuing to increase across different regions. All of our members are subject to the same challenges, through either the provision of IT systems as a vendor or provider, or attempting to upgrade legacy systems in-house. These challenges have accelerated interest in banking standards, and we will continue to collaborate with the world’s top IT architects to finalise a worldwide framework for all financial institutions.

“Alongside our new members, we have appointed two new people to our board of directors, who are at the top of their field in prominent, international banks. At BIAN, it is crucial that we work with the world’s best infrastructure specialists when such demands are placed on the technologies behind financial services. I am extremely pleased to welcome both Stephan Murer and Ian Gillard to our board of directors and look forward to working with them to expand our presence in different global regions.”