Bangkok--4 Jul--IBM
IBM announced the signing of an agreement to strengthen the Bank of Thailand’s Electronic Financial Services system (BOT-EFS) infrastructure on 11th March 2011 to meet the rising demand for electronic banking, specifically online payments, as financial institutions in Thailand prepare for the anticipated increase of goods, investments and other trade commodities flowing between nations in the region with the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.
Ms. Suchada Kirakul, Deputy Governor of the, Bank of Thailand said: “The need for Electronic Financial Services in Thailand, especially online payments, has increased significantly. With the 10-member countries of ASEAN, representing a combined population of about 580 million, working towards establishing the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, we foresee a surge in financial and investment opportunities in the coming years. To this end, the Bank of Thailand is entrusting IBM to ensure that our Electronic Financial Services system is robust and ready to improve the service level of financial institutions so that they can compete effectively in the ASEAN Economic Community”.
The agreement includes ramping up the Bank of Thailand Automated High-value Transfer Network (BAHTNET), which is a Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system for settling large value funds transfer between financial institutions and other organisations maintaining deposit accounts at the BOT, first set up in 1995. In addition to increasing its ability to process greater volumes securely, the move will also drive operational efficiencies in the BOT. At present, the RTGS is implemented in many countries such as the United States, Switzerland, Singapore and Australia.
The agreement deepens the 10-year relationship between BOT and IBM. With its long experience as a major IT partner for the BOT during the last decade, IBM was selected because it understands and shares BOT’s strategic vision for long term growth as well as the deep knowledge of its operation and IT infrastructure.
Under this agreement, IBM will provide an integrated solution to the BOT. Fielding a group with banking and financial services experts from its Global Business Services arm, IBM will work closely with the BOT’s IT department to design a reliable and scalable system capable of supporting the BOT’s growth needs as it continues to offer a world class settlement system.
BOT will implement IBM software to enhance its working process and respond to business changes while reducing costs. The solution meets the requirements set out by the BOT with an aim to provide better services to financial institutions. The IBM software development tools can also be used together with other software development tools, enabling IT standardization in the BOT.
IBM software includes:
WebSphere Message Broker, which is the driver for the operation of Service Oriented Architecture framework IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC), capable of integrating with other popular software development tools. Tivoli software helps observe all work process, control operation of IT resources and clarify the operational control process. In addition, it will increase efficiency and flexibility of IT systems as well as IT services.
The solution runs on IBM POWER7 Systems which has workload optimization ability and high system availability thus enabling BOT to draw insight from large quantities of transactional data to improve on its online payment service and operational efficiency. It can also be easily scaled to suit BOT’s future expansion plans.
Leveraging IBM’s end-to-end solutions and expertise of consulting professionals, the BOT will benefit from the knowledge of the IT processing infrastructure being implemented, thus, making the system and operators ready to provide services to all Thai financial institutions quickly.
Mrs. Parnsiree Amatayakul, Managing Director, IBM Thailand Co., Ltd. , said: “IBM is proud to be selected by the Bank of Thailand to support its transformational journey to become an institution that provide world class settlement and financial services, building on our decade long relationship and close to 60 years operating in Thailand. Leveraging IBM’s leadership in delivering integrated solutions and advanced high security electronic financial management systems, we are well positioned to help the BOT in bringing financial services in Thailand to greater heights”.
Media Contact : Communications, IBM Thailand co.,Ltd.
Chinnaree Tanmanee Tel. 02 273 4676
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