Bank Islam Brunei signs IT pact with Silverlake sign

Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) has extended its strategic information technology (IT) partnership with Silverlake Sistem Sdn Bhd to further enhance the bank's operations and customer services through the provision of innovative financial solutions.

BIBD's acting managing director, Javed Ahmad, said the continuous relationship with Silverlake was in line with the bank's vision to introduce state-of-the-art financial services in Brunei.

"Together with Silverlake, we are upgrading our existing IT infrastructure and hope this transformation programme will be completed in 16 months," he told reporters after signing the agreement with Silverlake in Petaling Jaya yesterday.

The agreement involves a major upgrade of BIBD's system from the existing Silverlake Axis Integrated Islamic Banking Solution (SIIBS) Core Version 3 to Version 8.

In addition, the new system would house five new modules involving sale and case management, financing origination, enterprise collection, global payment and corporate banking systems. SIIBS is a suite of banking products designed to facilitate and automate syariahcompliant banking products.

"We want to further grow our business in Brunei by expanding our expertise in multiple areas and developing an innovative Islamic finance products to assist the country in realising its financial potential," Javed said.

Islamic banking currently represents 40% of the total banking sector growth in Brunei and the number is expected to grow to 55-60% over the next three-five years. He said BIBD's immediate target was to strengthen its operation in Brunei before expanding its business in South-East Asia.

"We have an aspiration to be in the region, including Malaysia. But at the moment, we will concentrate to grow our business in Brunei," he said.

BIBD is the largest banking provider in Brunei with a total assets of about RM12 billion. With more than 14 branches and 500 staff, the bank's strong business is in Islamic retail banking, contributing 70 per cent of its total revenue. — Bernama

(This story appeared in The Malaysian Reserve on June 2, 2010. The Malaysian Reserve is a daily business/finance newspaper published out of Kuala Lumpur, with a sectoral page on Islamic finance on Mondays, edited by Habhajan Singh)