Police Bank is stepping up its transformation program under chief executive Greg McKenna after deciding to replace its core banking platform.
The NSW-based member-owned bank that services officers and workers in the NSW, Tasmanian and Federal police forces, is preparing to end its longstanding relationship with Ultradata as it progressively migrates customer data to a Temenos platform.
Police Bank is only the third customer-owned banking institution in Australia to embark on an overhaul of its core systems in the last decade.
The other mutual banks to undertake the challenge include Australian Military Bank in 2018 which now conducts its operations through a Infosys Finacle system.
Qudos Bank attempted a switch to the Finacle platform in 2017 but continues to operate on an Ultradata system.
McKenna said the decision to overhaul his bank’s core system followed two years of deliberation and planning by the bank’s board and senior management.
After a tender process was commenced last year the board received five bids from system providers before Temenos was selected.
“We had five firms engaged in the process,” he said.
“It was a close-run race – at the end of the day we decided to go with the Temenos proposal.”
McKenna acknowledged that system overhauls in Australia and overseas had been associated with operational risk incidents, but said the move was necessary to deliver better digital services to customers.
“Core replacements sometimes get a bad rap here in Australia – especially for mutuals – and we recognise that,” he said.
“Folks are often worried about what could go wrong, and we recognise that too.
“But to be true to our transformational goals of member and staff obsession, we feel this is the right thing to do and the right time to do it.”