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Terminos is considered as the best core banking system in the world whereas the Terminos Group is the leading software solution provider in the world. Terminos globally is used by more than 2,000 financial institutions, which includes 38 of 50 top banks. The system collectively manages more than 500 million customers in the world. Not only does Terminos T24 serve conventional banking, the system has been modified for Islamic banking and is able to incorporate Islamic products. With the scale with which Terminos works, the company has offices in 50 countries and services financial institutions in more than 125 countries.
Terminos has been ranked consistently as among the best banking solution for the last 14 years. Close rival include Misys and Infosys Finacle. IBS intelligence, a company operating out of Switzerland monitors sales, new sign-ups, features and performance, in 2015 has ranked, Terminos, in top position in its Sales League Table. This is the third consecutive year that T24 has topped the table, an annual ranking of core back office systems sales to new name customers across the banking and treasury and capital markets. In February 2015 IDC Financial Insights ranked Terminos T-24 as among top 3 banking solutions in Europe.
Back in 2014, Terminos T24 took market share in a consolidating market place. According to the IBS League Table, T24 won 37 deals in 2014, 5 percent more than in 2013, and won a total share of 22 percent of the core banking deals. In total, 41 vendors won business in the core banking market in 2014, but the top 5 vendors took 51 percent of the deals, demonstrating that the market is consolidating around of a few, global vendors able to meet the international requirements of the largest banks and to invest sufficiently in research and development to keep up with the rapid pace of technology change.
Since the European crisis and slow demand in USA, market for core banking systems has shown recovery. In 2014, sales of core banking systems, excluding treasury and capital markets deals totaled 172 which equated to growth of 2 percent over 2013. While the growth was low, this represents the first year of growth since 2007, before the banking crisis, when over 300 deals were signed. Western Europe and North America both grew in the year. Western Europe is the biggest market for core banking sales. Growth in North America was much stronger, with sales nearly doubling compared to previous year, as banks begin to recognize the need to change systems and contact international vendors to cope with changing customer behavior. In 2014, Terminos capitalized on the growth tangent to win several new customers in North America, such as First Ontario Credit Union and Bermuda Commercial Bank.
Distinguish choice
Now the question is, what makes Terminos T24 different from other solutions available in the market ? and why is it that more and more financial institutions choose T24 as a top choice? T24 is divided into Front Office and back office solutions and includes is considered the best for Wholesale/Corporate Banking and Investment Banking. The system is able to be integrated with any system and can be modified as per needs of the buyer. With respect to payments, collections and payroll management the system provides a solution for all. With changing market dynamics and more reliance on hand held devices, T24 is able to provide Internet banking solutions to meet customer’s needs. The system can be modified to extract MIS based on banking need, risk and compliance, crime reporting, treasury, wealth and retail management solutions. T24 connects processes from account opening to cheque book, credit, debit card authorizations and seamlessly integrates branch banking with head office.
IT professionals who manage T24 for financial institutions claim that nothing is off limits. With Terminos anything can be structured or modified to suite business need. The core issue faced by financial instructions, which is more internal in nature is: 1. System training of front and back end staff and 2. Lack of investment in the system for modifications and improvements. If training is not provided to its full extend, staff would not be able to explore the system to its full capacity, as a result, simple suggestions are declined on the premise that same cannot be incorporated in the system. If any modification is required for speed and performance improvement, funds are generally not allocated, which causes system to provide sub par performance. Any or both results in the system to provide solutions, which may not be what may be required by the institution. At times, the senior management would not approve the budget citing to keep the system operating at existing levels. Furthermore, when new IT professions join the core banking solutions team, training is mainly on the job with real life issues of customers and employees hence anything other than the given request is either declined or stated cannot be done. At times, when financial institutions opt for the system, they often choose basic functionality to reduce initial cost. This causes delays in launching new products which the system is unable to support unless modification is done.
Spreading in Pakistan
T24 is also considered expensive and based on the scale at which the institution operates can cost anything from $0.75 million to $25 million. With respect to Pakistan, there are handful of banks who use Terminos T24 whereas others use solutions by less popular vendors or have developed in house solutions for their core banking need. There are 8 banks in Pakistan using Terminos T24 including State Bank of Pakistan where T24 was implemented in 2010. National Data Consultant (Pvt) Limited (NDC) is a Terminos partner in Pakistan and is actively involved in implementation and development of T24 solutions for institutions in Pakistan. With growth of T24 in Pakistan and around the world, it is expected that more financial institutions will opt for T24 for their core banking need.
