• Bank-wide project optimizes customer engagement and sharpens competitive edge
• Move sees bank boost customer product offering by 20 percent

The United Bank of Egypt (The United Bank) has modernized its core banking infrastructure across its retail, corporate and treasury business using Finastra technology.

The bank has upgraded to the latest version of Fusion Equation, integrating it with a new deployment of Fusion Teller to drive efficient in-branch retail operations. It has also upgraded to the latest versions of Fusion Trade Innovation and Fusion Treasury to boost its corporate banking services and integrate treasury operations respectively.

The third-largest banking entity in Egypt, The United Bank has ambitious goals to establish itself as the country’s top local bank, and a leading bank for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMES) in the region. Working with Finastra, the bank can now design and develop new products faster and roll them out through multiple channels seamlessly – giving it a competitive edge. Finastra’s agile digital offerings help the bank provide more responsive services to its customers at low cost, whilst continuing to meet Islamic banking and regulatory requirements.

Ahmed Helmy, CIO at The United Bank said, “We were keen to grow our business and widen the range of products and services that we offer to our retail and corporate customers. Going digital was the best way to achieve these goals. We’ve worked with Finastra a long time and recognized it was best placed to help us revolutionize our business because of its expertise and the comprehensive functionality of its solutions. Since upgrading Fusion Equation, we have increased the number of products we offer to our customers by 20 percent and now we can attract new customers and increase our cross-sell capability.”

In addition, since its upgrade, The United Bank has made significant efficiency gains, and it now has much stronger risk management in place. The bank has seen time taken to set up new branches reduced by 40 percent, and acceleration of end-of-day processing by 30 percent.

Wissam Khoury, Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa at Finastra said, “The United Bank is a strong example of a forward-thinking organization ready to embrace digital. We know it isn’t always easy for banks to make this leap and that’s why we ensure we help our customers through their transformations incrementally. Now equipped with an upgraded suite of core banking solutions, The United Bank can set itself apart from the competition to win more customers and boost market share. They have already seen compelling results that demonstrate real value.”

To minimize disruption and ensure a high level of predictability during the core upgrade part of the project, the bank made use of the Fusion Advance service. This allowed it to leverage proven best practices and support from Finastra, ensuring that the complementary set of solutions were delivered as anticipated and that all the new functionalities align tightly with the bank’s goals.

The United Bank has been working with Finastra since its inception in 2006. By drawing on best practices and support from Finastra, it was able to complete its upgrade project within budget and with minimal disruption to the business.