ZURICH (Reuters) -Julius Baer has chosen software provider Temenos to replace its ageing core banking system in the Swiss home market, four people familiar with the matter said, in a quest by the bank to update critical infrastructure amid mounting regulatory requirements.
CEO Stefan Bollinger announced in June the bank had set up a new digital business transformation function and initiated a project to modernise its IT infrastructure in Switzerland, without revealing the name of the supplier.
“It has to be done, and I want to do a substantial proportion in the current strategic cycle,” Bollinger said, referring to the cycle ending in 2028 and citing more regulatory demands as one of the drivers.
The bank is aligning its Swiss systems with Temenos’ T24 product which Julius Baer already uses in Singapore and Luxembourg, two of the sources said.
Julius Baer is also adding a Temenos wealth management interface for relationship managers and high-net-worth clients, according to one of the sources.
The bank declined to comment on the choice of Temenos and individual systems. Temenos declined to comment.
Temenos today typically sells new contracts using a subscription model, where cash flows are distributed over a period of five years, according to Reto Huber, analyst at financial consultancy Research Partners.
Switzerland in 2016 introduced a rule for banks to operate a computer-based system to monitor transactions, which requires increased digitisation of customer data, according to financial market regulator FINMA.
Julius Baer, which is still under a FINMA enforcement procedure for losses to failed property group Signa, said there was no link between the IT upgrade and the ongoing assessment.
“The IT infrastructure programme in Switzerland is not an operational risk issue, rather an initiative to gain strategic flexibility in pursuit of the bank’s future ambitions,” it said.
(Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier in Gdansk, Ariane Luthi and Oliver Hirt in Zurich and Jesus Aguado in Madrid, editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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