London, 26th May 2004 - Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie (BIAT), one of Tunisia’s leading corporate banks, has chosen OPICS from Misys Wholesale Banking Systems (Misys) as the IT solution to help spearhead its continued business expansion at its head office in Tunis. OPICS was chosen due to the system’s flexibility, advanced technology architecture and complete integration from front- to back-office.

BIAT is home to Tunisia’s leading trading room and is experiencing a period of rapid development, including the addition of a range of new services and a growing focus on international banking. Like many financial institutions, BIAT is also putting more processes in place to support risk management. Although the previous proprietary in-house system was suitable for existing services, it could not support these future plans. This led to the bank reviewing its IT infrastructure and, between 2002 and the end of 2003, carrying out a thorough investigation of the solutions available in the world market, ending ultimately in the decision to implement OPICS.

Says Adnane Ben Chaabane, BIAT’s IT Director, “Our aim is to enhance the scope of information exchanged across the bank, and this is why we chose OPICS. The system will give us a true front- to back-office solution that is fully integrated, helping us to achieve greater STP (straight-through processing). It is flexible enough to support products that we will introduce in the future, such as cash management for corporates, and will allow them to be introduced with minimal deployment. In addition, OPICS’ use of new technology, including the .NET platform, is also important to us.”

Users of the system were closely involved in the procurement process. Says Lotfi Jabala, Chief Dealer for BIAT, “OPICS is able to cover the increasing range of activities carried out in the dealing room – with Tunisia being a fast growing market, the flexibility of the new system will help us to introduce new products very quickly. OPICS will also help us to expand our international banking activities, as its use of Internet technology will allow us to quickly and efficiently link the dealing room to different branches of the bank.

Ridha Sherif, in charge of BIAT’s Risk Management, also comments, “We needed a system that could handle risk and OPICS is very good in this area. It is also very flexible for reporting, allowing us to make reports using our own criteria and design, and ensures that we are not prisoners of a single format. The system also benefits dealers, giving them better tools and control. For example, the system will check and verify limits in real time, which is essential for our business.”

The first phase of the OPICS implementation is currently under way, with completion due for mid-2004, and covers FX and Money Markets.

Shamira Alidina / Adelaide Harrison
Write Image
+44 (0) 20 7959 5400
Shamira.alidina@write-image.co.uk / Adelaide.harrison@write-image.co.uk

Andy Coulter
Head of Marketing & Business Planning
Misys Wholesale Banking Systems
+44 (0)20 8879 1188
andy.coulter@misys.com

Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie (BIAT) was established in 1976 by a group of investors composed of local institutions and individuals, and Arab and European banks, through the acquisition of the British Bank of the Middle East and Societe Marseillaise de Credit. Since then the bank has continued to expand, and is now the largest private bank in Tunisia. The bank is also considered the most sophisticated Tunisian bank, and is the countries leading customer-deposit collector.

Historically, the bank has a strong involvement with domestic corporates and SME’s, which is it now complementing with new developments in the consumer/personal banking arena. This development strategy should help the bank broaden its large deposit base, diversify its sources of income, reduce its average risk per customer and report higher profitability. Overall, BIAT enjoys a strong market franchise among its clients as evidenced by a stable market share of about 11% of loans and 15% of deposits over the past four years.

Misys Wholesale Banking Systems is a trusted provider of innovative technology solutions. Over 1,000 employees in 30 offices around the world have built up the necessary domain expertise to deliver world-class solutions with an understanding of local requirements. Misys Wholesale Banking Systems' staff are committed to developing and supporting a product family that embraces trade finance, international banking, treasury & capital markets, confirmation matching, continuous linked settlement (CLS), ebanking, middleware and financial messaging.

Misys Wholesale Banking Systems is part of Misys plc’s Banking & Securities Division, which serves over 1,200 customers across more than 120 countries, including 92% of the world's top 50 banks and 56% of the top 250. (Source: The Banker, July 2003).

Misys plc, the global software products and solutions company, serves customers in the international banking and securities, international healthcare, and UK retail financial services sectors. The group partners with its customers to deliver outstanding IT solutions to essential industries. For the year ended May 31, 2003, Misys reported revenues in excess of $1.8 billion. Misys employs more than 6,000 people internationally. For more information, visit www.misys.com.