The Core System of the ICS BANKS software provides total financial data management of our client's customer information. It handles all financial activity for our Banking clients and their customers - either at a customer account level, or at the General Ledger account level.

BANKS Structure

BANKS is flexible; our client bank selects its base and foreign currencies, chart of account, various period ends and processing parameter.

The following functions are applied:

Home Bank Maintenance

This is the highest level of parameterization, by which the bank defines parameters which sets the outline of his polices, such as defining base and local currencies, period ends and processing parameters. 

Product Maintenance

This is what other people call chart of account, by this the bank defines any new product with all its parameters and accounting controls.

Currency Maintenance

This allows the bank to define its own currency codes and other currency related parameters (i.e. week-ends, weekend days, minor currency units, etc.)

Branch Maintenance

This maintains data for Bank branches - descriptions, type and details of branches’ data communication.

Charges

This provides facilities to set charges for various bank services, so the system can calculate service costs and debit customer accounts. Can be define on two levels: 

       • Bank level
       • Account level

Function Authority/User Roll

All application functions have a departmental and maximum/ minimum authority level that can be set by the user bank.

General Ledger

Ledger balances for each day with back-dated ledger balance maintenance capability. Foreign currency revaluation and profit / loss calculation at specified periods. Balance sheet can be prepared using current or cleared balances in real currencies or in the base currency of the bank, for any day.

Account Management

The following list includes a few of the accounts that can be created using various in-built accounts parameters.

       • Current Accounts
       • Saving Accounts
       • Time Deposit Accounts
       • Call Accounts
       • Overdraft Accounts

Account Controls

System provides account controls. These can be exercised from any branch using the interbranch facility. These are:

       • Block Funds
       • Stop Payments
       • Account restrictions
       • Standing instructions
       • Balance limits
       • Temporary facility parameters

Interest calculation

The system has the ability to adjust the interest. Backdated transactions or retroactive change in interest rate or calculation parameters could require this. The process is capable of using tiered interest rates either incrementally or totally. System supports floating interest rate and other methods.

Transaction Processing

Transactions update the Account and Contra balances in real time, always utilizing verification features (including requests for automatic manager approval for exceptional transactions).

Inter branch Banking

An integral part of the system, this smoothly handles all types of communication (including leased or dial-up circuits).

Clearing

Inter-branch facilities can be used for inter-branch clearing, so that the banks Central Clearing House can debit customer accounts directly.

Postdated Cheques

The system records postdated cheques deposited by account holders, and automatically tendered for clearing when due.

Standing Instructions / Standing Orders

Customers can give various instructions regarding periodic transactions against their accounts. The system automatically implements the instructions at pre-specified periods.

Enquiries

Numerous enquiry features are embedded in the system - for retrieving customer information quickly or for operation monitoring and control.

Customer Enquiries

A wide range of pre-specified enquiries exist at customer and account level:

       • Soft Enquiries: Customer enquiries along with display functions are available as ‘soft functions’.
         These can be used within business activity functions.
       • Other Enquiries: Other numerous enquiries and display functions are available and can be further tailored to meet the various
          demands of our Bank clients for customer information.

Control Enquiries

Extensive enquiries providing information for monitoring and controlling operational activities at branch and bank level:

       • Other Enquiries: More enquiries are available for exercising proper control and to provide management information.

Customer Deposits

The system handles customer deposits, without making the customer to wait for any length of line. He hands all his deposits in the front office, where he is credited with cash and total clearing. In the back office his cheques are read through MICR reader or manually entered to complete the data entry and verify the front office entry. This can produce electronic file for the clearing house which can be sent as electronic mail or transferred directly to the central clearing house. Similarly the system will process the data thus received as clearing withdrawals or returned cheques, using electronically transmitted data or MICR read locally.

Cash Management

The system provides comprehensive standing instructions for the customer to maintain a minimum balance in his chequing accounts and sweep all its surplus cash into an interest bearing account after keeping a specified minimum in the former.

For the bank each cash transaction automatically generate a contra entry to the cash in hand accounts maintenance at teller level and the cash in chest. This provides instant position of the cash in hand in various currencies in a branch as well as across the bank . With this information the bank interest the surplus instantly.

Transaction Processing for Optional modules

This maintains the financial data for those modules which have not been opted for by the bank. The financial data for which such activities will be added by vouchers, however there is a need to maintain the non financial data manually. The reporting of such data is also in normal operation reports. The financial data has to be entered into the core system for maintaining complete general ledger and financial management information.

System Security and Control

The system is a secure system. It maintains the list of authorized users their level of authority & the period for which they are allowed to use the system functions. It provides a complete activity list of each operator and log of successful and unsuccessful activities. It is further secured by the secure application and controls.

Reports

The core system provides all the standard reports. More than five hundred regular reports exists in the system. In addition the user can easily specify his requirements either to be implemented as a regular feature ofBANKS or for itself. Most of the reports are scheduled. These also can be requested any time during the operation of the system. Each optional subsystem has its own set of reports.

Loans

The objective of the loan system is to provide facilities for granting a loan, preparing a schedule of repayments using various interest calculation and repayment methods i.e.

       • Simple Interest
       • Discounted method
       • Equal Installment Method

It automatically settles, the installment and arrears against the settlement account, as and when funds are available. The subsystem has several inquiries and reports to provide operational, control and management information.

This is integrated with the risk management module and all activities are checked and in return updates the customer facility and its utilization.

The system also gives the facility to reschedule a loan due to change of:

       • Interest rate.
       • Installment amount.
       • Number of installments.
       • Changing the whole schedule of repayment.

Remittances

The objective of the Remittance Module is to provide money transfer and receiving inward transfers for the customer.

These functions provide facilities for data entry at basic level so that the employee can enter more meaningful information i.e. amount and type of currency exchanged, agreed buying / selling price & commission (System provides standard values which user can modify).

The function creates necessary transactions to various ledgers and produces confirmation. The bank authority can verify the basic data and authorize the activity.

There are several functions, each for a specific type of transaction. Each business function generates transactions to appropriate ledgers. The sub system produces /SWIFT/TELEX message automatically. It has following functions:

       • Outward transfers and outstanding issue transfers  
       • Inward transfers  
       • Direct transfers between branches 

Other Systems 

       • Accepted drafts 
       • Traveler cheques stock and its transfer 
       • Traveler cheques sales
       • Purchase Cheques

Customer Information and Facilities

Utilization and monitoring of facilities, line limits and group limits is maintained in real time. Risk Management is maintained on five levels:

       • Group
       • Group Detail
       • Customer Facility
       • Facility Details
       • Account

Each of the above levels can be in a different currency. Guarantor and collaterals are also maintained and monitored for their used amounts, revision dates, and revaluation periods. 

A facility type can be related up to 4 different groups. A facility risk limit is used for transaction process control. Where as a group limit is used for implementing corporate policies by setting limits and monitoring the use against such limits.

The system also has the capability to allocate facility to a branch or the head office. From these facilities the branch or the bank management can grant to customers such facilities. It follows the same control procedures.

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Letter Of Credit

The letter of credit system handles both the Export/Import LC and provides business functions to handle LC maintenance with minimal input, preparing and posting various multi-currency accounting entries. The customer facility automatically provides the control over LC activity.

It is also integrated with Telex/Swift message generation for correspondent banks.

Letter of Guarantee

The letter of guarantee system provides business functions to handle LG maintenance with minimal input, preparing and posting various multi currency accounting entries.

The customer facility automatically provides the control over LG activities. The system is integrated with Swift/Telex message generation.

Bills for Collection

The bills for collection handles both the Outward/Inward BC and allows branch to collect bills on behalf of a customer. It provides business functions to handle BC maintenance with minimal input, preparing and posting various accounting entries.

Comprehensive financing lease system where the lease is a contractual agreement between a lesser (bank) and lessee (customer) where the lesser purchases the machinery from the vendor on behalf of the customer which gives the lessee the right to use the machinery or property for a specified period of time where the lessee will make a periodic rental payments to the lessor.

For long term lease contract the lessee usually given the option to buy the leased asset or renew the lease contract at the end of the original lease period.

Financing lease history

Main sectors used in financing lease

       • Real estate sector
       • Transportation sector
       • Industrial sector
       • Medical sector
       • Tourism sector
       • Agricultural sector

The following conditions that consider the funding as a financing lease:

       • The duration of the contract exceeds 75% of the life of that asset
       • The total payments amount exceeds 90% of the asset current value
       • Option to by the asset at the end of the lease contract
       • Automatic transfer of ownership at the end of the period

Main expressions used in financing lease contract

       • Asset value
       • Net asset value
       • Down payments
       • Net investment
       • Residual value
       • Option to buy amount

Asset value represents the purchase amount including discount amount incase the bank obtained a discount from the supplier.

Net asset value represents the purchase amount minus discount amount if the bank obtained a discount from the supplier.

Down payments can be made once the lease is granted or paid later according to defined schedule which will be created for the remaining unpaid down payments.
The remaining unpaid down payments can be divided into more than one installment with different maturity dates and entered by the user. The system will automatically settle these payments on their maturity date.

Net invest will be equal to asset value minus down payments.

Residual value if input by the user and the financing lease was granted without a buy back option then the system will automatically set the last payment in the schedule to be equal to the residual value and the customer must settle the residual value same as other installments. If the financing lease was granted with a buy back option then it will be treated by the system according to the following two cases:

CASE 1:   If last installment with residual value amount was matured and the customer wants to return the machinery back to the bank then in this case the customer will not pay the residual value amount to the bank. According to the original agreement between the bank and the supplier, the supplier must pay the residual value amount to the bank and accordingly the bank will return the machinery back to the supplier.

CASE 2: If option to buy amount was not equal to zero and the customer decides to buy the machinery from the bank, then if last installment with residual value amount was matured, then the customer must pay option to buy amount to the bank. The system gives the facility for the bank to let the customer settles whole or part or more than already agreed option to buy amount.

The financing lease system provides two methods for building the installments schedule. Both methods will be calculated on a base that month days is always 30 days and yearly days is equal to 360 days.

The period between each installment must be one month if payment amount for any installment was equal to zero or payment amount was less than revenue amount then this means that the system will calculate compound interest since the principle amount in this case will be negative and this is called (capitalization of revenue).

METHOD 1: The  user must input the interest rate and the system will automatically create an equal payments schedule according to input interest rate.

METHOD 2: The  user must input the payments which can be either equal payment or unequal payments and also accepts a payment amount to be equal to zero.
Once the user inputs all scheduled payments then the system will automatically calculate the interest rate using net present value formula (NPV).

The financing lease installment schedule consists of the following columns:

       • Installment sequence
       • Maturity date
       • Payment amount
       • VAT amount (which will be calculated according to input vat rate).
       • Payment with vat (payment amount + vat amount)
       • Maintenance (registration, maintenance, insurance, others).
       • Net payment
       • Revenue
       • Principal amount
       • Net investment
       • Total investment
       • Option to buy amount (will be calculated according to input option to buy rate. If option to buy rate was equal to zero then it will be equal to net investment amount).
 

The Treasury has following main subsystems:

       - Foreign exchange Dealing
       - Money Market (Placements and deposits Deals)
       - Margin Trading

Foreign Exchange & Money Market

Dealing Room system has interface with Reuters Dealer 2000 to accept the deal data. It can have interface for receiving market rates and prices from external sources for the dealer to use this information along with types handled are:

limits reflecting the bank investment strategies. The deal process goes through verification and approval process. The subsystem has telex/SWIFT interface to prepare outward messages for the other party.

The system provides ongoing information about the profitability and risk involved, so that a dealer can use the opportunity to cover the risk. It automatically matures and settles deals. The subsystem is capable of handling various types of instruments available in the financial market.

The deal slip entry is the basis for deal input to the dealing room subsystem. This deal entry whether a foreign exchange deal slip (buying or selling currencies) or a money market deal slip (placement or deposit) will automatically create all the financial transactions on different accounting ledgers and accounts.

Hence, will do an immediate update and have up to date information without any delay. This will eliminate voucher to handle the dealing room transactions resulting in eliminating the reconciliation process and producing a balancing journal at any time.

When deal matures, the system will automatically create the necessary internal transactions without teller or dealer intervention by depending on the data, which the dealer has entered at deal slip entry.

The deal types handled are:

       • Spot and special spot
       • Forward and special forward
       • Option and its utilisation
       • Swap
       • Arbitrage

At the end of the day, the system will produce the necessary batch reports together with the necessary confirmations if not produced during on-line session. These reports will be useful for management, dealers and foreign exchange operation, accounting and auditing.

Using the on-line facilities, the dealing room system will be able to generate journal transactions that will record every debit and credit transaction to the above-mentioned accounts. On-line checking and display of relevant dealing room ledgers will take place in order to provide assistance and control in the deal entry, amendment, cancelling the various dealing accounts.

Treasury supervisors and managers are able to make inquiries on any contract party, their accounts, their deals, their facilities and to enter authorisation codes for transactions that require higher-level management approval or non-approval. This reduces the high volume of paper flow through the treasury office.

The on-line facility creates new contract parties for dealing room system, accounts and updates existing contract parties.

The subsystem prepares and produces the daily rate sheet using market indicators, then sends it to all branches using the data communication network.

The system will have a separate function to deal with premature withdrawals and automatically transfer the principal to the assigned account, and interest figure either given to the contract party or transferred to revenue account depending upon manager decision resulting in eliminating the manual transaction for the pre-mature deposits or placements.

Interest calculation on placements or deposits will be either daily, or for the whole period depending on the method of interest calculation agreed with the second party.

The function automatically handles any adjustment and its effect on the accrued interest charged as long as it is not pre-value-dated for a longer period than assigned by the bank.

The accounting department will be able to reconcile daily balances and journal, and do the necessary corrective / missing entries for the day without affecting the final daily journal.

The system will be able to maintain interactively all the account controls so that there is no time lag between exercising the control and its affect on the future transactions it will provide all the necessary information for the audit and conform to all bank’s control and audit procedures.

It will provide necessary safeguards to employees and customers. It will also print a receipt, which is the documentary proof of the transaction. As far as employee is concerned, the system provides the facility to protect his own password.

Foreign Exchange

The deal types handled are:

       • Spot and special spot
       • Forward and special forward
       • Option and its utilisation
       • Swap
       • Arbitrage

Money Market

The deal types are:

       • Placements
       • Borrowings (Deposits)

Under construction

BANKS® Investment package offer an essential, straight through processing and end to end event driven processing for a wide range of financial products including securities, equities and derivatives.
The system provides deal capture, limits control, position keeping, automatic processing for transactions, confirmation, and settlement to maturity, generating all necessary accounting and reporting and some risk management.

BANKS® Investment Products Debt Securities Equities Mutual Funds Derivatives Foreign Exchange Money Market Marginal Trading

BANKS® Investment Features

• A complete integrated parameterized End to End Solutions that covers all brokerage activities.
  
• Efficient Workflow- from front to back. BANKS with its front, middle and back modules gives you a single integrated system for handling your trade. From initial pricing , deal capture, position keeping right through to final confirmation , settlement and accounting entries.
  
• Capability to define unlimited number of brokers.
  
• Automatic computation of brokerage and exchange fees per market/security type, or specifically per client’s pre-set rate.
  
• Automatic settlement and reconciliation
  Capability to define unlimited number of trading accounts each for different markets.
  
• Automatic transfer funds between different accounts with different currencies.

BANKS® Investment Functions Add customer order Change customer order Stop / Cancel customer order Execute customer order Partial execution of the orders Block orders – back to back deals BANKS® Investment Type of Orders Day order Good till cancel (GTC) Good till date (GTD) Limit order Market order Fill or kill All or non (AON)

BANKS® Investment Safe Custody Features

• Custody fees charge can be defined on:

             - Bank level same for all customers.

             - Customer / Account level.

• Custody fees charge can be defined on:

             - Stock market level

             - Security (instrument) level

• In case of no funds to charge the customers, suspense account will be affect instead which will be reversed against customer account automatically upon availability of the fund or manually by the user using special online function.

BANKS® Investment Customer Corporate Action

• Merge of stocks

             - Take over

             - Mutual

• Spin-Off stocks

• Split/Reverse Split of stock

• Recieve dividend

             - Stock dividend

             - Cash dividend

• Transfer customer portfolio

             - To the bank

             - From the bank

             - Internal from broker to broker

             - From customer to customer

•  Automatic reconciliation

Management information system has several functions spread over the entire system and provides the management information. All operational system generate and maintain operational data and its history. This data is available at all levels i.e.

       • Account Customer / departmentbr
       • Branch
       • Bank

In order to produce financial accounting we have several functions which produce:

       • Statement of accounts
       • Central bank reporting
       • Cost accounting at departmental / branch level
       • Customer positions
       • Cash positions

In order to do financial planning we have historical data which can be kept for any length of time, which is input to:

       • Budgeting
       • Interest gap control
       • Performance / Profitability
       • Assets liability management

We provide the planning and control software which gives comprehensive management control and provide the manager most up-to-date information which he requires. This information can be presented in several ways i.e. as:

       • Reports
       • Maps
       • Graphs, i.e. histograms, pie charts.

Straight Through Processing With... BANKS BPM

BANKS BPM   is  a  Business   Process  Management solution for  banks .

Powered  by  WorkFlow  Process Server ,BANKS BPM optimizes the internal process, document   handling ,  and  flow  management between various  bank   departments   and   enhances  customer service  through  the e-banking channel.

BANKS BPM   is   fully   integrated   with   BANKS system. Therefore, it can be installed on anyBANKS system with flexibility to modify the process definition level (Process Blue – Print),  enabling  data  exchange with BANKS through an integration layer.

Similarly,  BANKS BPM   integrates   the  processes, systems ,  and  people  into   one   solution   to  achieve effectiveness and enhance customer services.

Through      the     Customer        Application     Center, BANKS BPM   helps   financial    institutions  extend the   scope   of   their   e– banking    services .  This  is achieved by  securing  a  high  level   of   transparency, by providing   a   direct   channel    of   communication between  customers  and  bank  employees ,  who  are in charge of the application under processing.

BANKS BPM includes    Pre- built     processes integrated   with   the   BANKS   system.  Once  the process map (blue - print) is defined, the processes will be ready for deployment.

These processes are:

       • Letter of credit application.
       • Letter of guarantee application.
       • Bills for collection application.
       • Loan/Credit facility application.
       • Credit card application.
       • Credit card application.

The Monthly Profitability Reports (MPR) are a set of reports prepared and submitted to the bank’s management on a monthly basis in order to evaluate the total bank’s performance, as well as the groups, sub-groups, teams (business units) performance, compared to the targets that are set at the beginning of the financial year, and in order to know the account profitability as well as the customer profitability.

MPR consists basically of six parts:

       • Balance Sheet / Local Currency (LCY).
       • Balance Sheet / Local Currency (FCY).
       • Income Statement.
       • Commissions & Fees Analysis Report.
       • Monthly Account Profitability Report.
       • YTD Account Profitability Report.

Under construction

A2A pBanking - Phone Banking System

An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) application that gives your telephone system the intelligence to answer a caller’s questions by speaking to them and executing procedures based on the caller’s interaction with the telephone keypad.

A2A utilizes voice technology to help banks deliver services to their clients using a simple telephone.

The A2A pBanking system is divided into two modules: Voice module and fax/email on Demand module.

This module gives the system the ability to:

       • Answer and place calls over analog lines, T1 lines, E1/ISDN lines or even the Internet.
       • Play and record voice messages.
       • Speak dynamic information such as dates and numbers in Arabic and/or English (Higri dates are supported also).
       • Generate and detect touch-tone digits.
       • Transfer calls and establish call conferencing.
       • and more …

This module will greet the caller and interact with him/her by detecting the touch-tones.

These tones will be converted into data that the communications module can pass onto the banking application on the bank’s host.

This will be on the request side. On the reply side, the voice module will read the information that the communications module has put into the local database and convert it into normal human voice based on the information retrieved and the pre-recorded messages.

Fax / email on Demand Module

After the communications module communicates with the bank’s host and retrieves account information, the program has the option either to convert the imported data into voice, fax or e-mail format.

Then, it sends the information to the predefined fax number or email address of the caller or to a new fax number that has just been entered using the touch-tones.

This module can send unlimited numbers of faxes, and all the requested faxes will stay in the queue to be served in a FIFO fashion.

Arabic and English languages are supported in this module. Other languages can be added as an option and upon a bank’s request.

A2A smsBanking - Push Version/A2A Web Provisioning :

The A2A smsBanking system with Internet Provisioning is a state-of-the-art delivery channel. It allows financial institutions to deliver up-to-date information to their clients using SMS.

It also provides each one of these clients with the ability to access, through a unique password and ID, a Web page though which he/she could select the notification services he/she wants.

This system's email feature allows information to be delivered to clients' email accounts.

Automatic billing of customers is also available in this system.

A2A smsBanking - Pull Version :

Secure and interactive mobile banking based purely on SMS.

Capitalizing on the tremendous success of SMS in most countries, Access to Arabia has implemented an electronic banking solution that allows customers to request information about their bank accounts, to execute transactions and to pay bills by simply sending and receiving SMS

A2A smsBanking - Marketing Version:

This is a unique product that is especially developed to be used by marketing and sales professionals in banking institutions. It provides sophisticated features to manage SMS marketing campaigns from beginning to end.

A2A smsBanking - ASP Edition :
This is a solution that allows multi national banks and credit card service providers to give their customers (banking institutions) a solution similar to A2A smsBanking. 

The system presents a great leap forward for the services offered by these financial institutions. 

It provides banking and credit card customers with the security and peace of mind of being alerted on every transaction that occurs on their accounts. 

It also provides financial institutions with new sources of income.