ME completes major system upgrade

ME (formerly ME Bank) has completed a A$90 million investment in a complete technology overhaul and is promising a very different approach to the development of products and services.

ME chief executive Jamie McPhee said the bank would have the benefit of a single customer view, greater flexibility in product design and pricing and a shift from manual to automated processes in areas such as home loan applications.

The project, which was managed by solutions architects Fragile to Agile and built around a Temenos T24 back office platform, ran for five years. The first data migration was in July last year and home loan origination started on the new system in March this year.

There have already been some changes. In March the bank launched a basic home loan, allowing it to compete in the low-rate end of the mortgage market for the first time.

McPhee said he had a line of credit loan on the drawing board as well.

ME has also launched a new smartphone app, which has been downloaded by 40,000 of its 340,000 customers in the first month.

A new low-rate credit card is in the works as well as an online mortgage application facility.

ME has no branches (it closed the 14 it had in 2011) and being able to provide a sophisticated omni-channel service is important to its future development.

McPhee said the shift from manual processing of credit applications would greatly reduce turnaround times and make for a more consistent customer experience.

The project ran close to schedule and budget. "The system we chose operates in hundreds of banks. We did a minimum of customisation," McPhee said.