EXCLUSIVE. Citi has chosen the TCS Bancs core platform for a potential overhaul of its corporate banking systems, it is believed.
No comment. No surprise.
At the first stage, the bank is testing the platform in Singapore, FinTech Futures understands. If that goes well, the next step will be Banamex, Citi’s subsidiary in Mexico. Then, if all that goes well, the system will be rolled out to the rest of Citi around the world.
As mentioned above, this is at the testing phase, but should the project go ahead the legacy system Oracle Flexcube will be replaced, or its heavily customised version. Citi runs Flexcube for its international operations (global transaction banking) on the corporate banking side.
FinTech Futures contacted Citi and TCS for more details. Both declined to comment.
Flexcube actually originated from Citi, a long time ago. I-flex was incubated in Citigroup in India, and Oracle then acquired a 41% stake in i-flex for $593 million in August 2005.
After a few more nibbles, Oracle increased its stake in i-flex to around 83% in 2017. A year later, Oracle changed the name of the company to Oracle Financial Services.
Citi is a major user of Flexcube, so – depending on how the test goes – this could be a major blow to Oracle and its core banking ambitions.
For TCS Bancs, just this month it enjoyed some sweet activity. Kuwait’s central bank went live on the system, and Emirates NBD upgraded its payments system.
In another exclusive published today (21 January), Bank of America is understood to have selected Infosys and its Finacle suite of products for its corporate banking technology modernisation project
It is understood that Oracle FSS also bid for the deal with its Flexcube offering.