Bank Asia’s Strategic resort to IT to run the

business smoothly
Case Study
MIS in the banking sector of Bangladesh is relatively in the preschooler stage. But the
time of recording bank transactions and records by hand or by Microsoft Excel is also not
there anymore. So are the banks implementing IS (Information Systems)

Bank Asia is one of the most reckoned banks in Bangladesh starting its operation in 1999
with a mission to extend high quality financial service to customers and participate in the
growth of national economy. It’s the first bank in Bangladesh to have taken over the local
business of two foreign banks – Nova Scotia Bank of Canada and Muslim Commercial
Bank of Pakistan. It offers a wide range of financial services that covers the entire
spectrum of banking operations including corporate finance, retail banking, Islamic
banking, SME financing, agricultural credit, e-banking, mobile banking, ATM etc. under
its online platform. The Bank is using real time centralized robust Core Banking System
(CBS) which has been developed by ERA InfoTech Limited-a Joint Venture IT Company
formed by Bank Asia Ltd, Ranks ITT Ltd of Bangladesh and ETA InfoTech LLC,
Dubai.The newest version of the software is named iStelar which is a real-time online
browser based banking Software with built in Oracle Fusion Middleware.

Some of the core benefits of iStelar are Single view of Customer, Centralized Database,
Browser Independent, Online Real Time 24/7 available, Easy Implementation, Lower
TCO, Compliant with Industry Standard messaging protocols like ISO & SWIFT,
Compliance with market & regulations etc. It has diverse modules to make the operation
less time consuming. Like - CASA Account, Term Deposit, Loans & Advance, Payment
& Collections, Foreign Trade, General Ledger, Daily Management & Central Bank
reports, Mobile Banking & Internet Banking. Other than that this software supports the
computation methods like- Flat rate, Split rate, threshold rate, matrix rate, client
segmentation, account management etc.
So what does the iStelar do? iStelar combines wide-ranging business functionalities of
banks starting from Teller Operation to Treasury & ADCs with scalability in a secured
way to meet the business challenges and needs of today as well as future. Its component
based modular architecture allows bank lower time to market to adopt new technology,
product and services; and easy integration with any solution. It is available round the
clock 24/7, real time, online; and from anywhere. And simply it brings the whole banks
transaction history in the tip of a mouse from any bank branch in the country. And it
works like a traditional TPS in the corporation.

Now is it all they have? The answer is no. They have also developed an in-house system
what they call “Dashboard”. It is more like an Executive support system (ESS),
developed by the Oracle Application Express (Oracle Apex); which gets a specific and
organized feedback of the transactions from iStelar after the transaction of the working
day closes. Then this server organizes the data for the executives who can search the data
by daily, weekly or monthly basis. Executives can also see the performance of each
branch in the previous day. And can even see the top performer in the organization by the
server. A Credit Rating Agency has access in this server, which delivers the rated and
non-rated credit to the executives and give a total view of the financial condition of the
bank.

Who has the access in Dashboard? Only the branch managers and the top level executives
have the access in this system. Why branch managers? They think looking at the other
branch’s performance will push the performance of a respective branch.

Overall the management of Bank Asia has stepped into the next step of company’s
lifecycle. Where the management are thinking about a reconstruction of the operation
processes and finally getting a strong foothold in the banking sector of Bangladesh.
Questions:
1. Does use of IS in banking operations increase productivity and customer
satisfaction rate?
2. How does the Dashboard help in performance appraisal of the employees? Does
over monitoring of employees performance decrease quality of work?
3. Is there any advantage in choosing local IS solutions over products from global
companies?
4. What more can Bank Asia do in Managing and implementing Information
Systems?
5. As the company procures IT support locally, will the company is in problem with
complying global technological standard?
6. As it is a local company operating in Bangladesh only, is it justified to use local IT
support which is custom made and can be changed if the demand changes?

=======The End======