Case study: Standard Bank partners with BIPs for development of reporting tool in line with Basel II requirements

Standard Bank of South Africa's Corporate and Investment Banking division recently partnered with BI Planning Services (BIPS) for the implementation of a reporting solution that now enables the bank to generate reports to fulfil its reporting requirements in terms of the regulatory requirements that are underpinned by the Basel II accord.

"We required a reporting solution that enabled business self-service; therefore, easily creating reports and querying data without the involvement of IT," comments Daniel Morais, business user at Standard Bank of South Africa's Corporate and Investment Banking division.

"Furthermore, we were faced with a stringent timeline - we had to develop a solution that would not only enable us to comply with the amended regulations, but also meet the September 2007 deadline imposed by the South African Reserve Bank for submission of the new reports in parallel to the existing reports. The reporting framework within the amended regulations is also quite complex which, coupled with stringent timelines, required detailed functional specifications."

Following an extensive tender process, Standard Bank decided to partner with BIPS as the company was competitively priced and provided the organisation with the expert consultancy it required to build a reporting solution. The reporting solution was a bespoke development as it used tools already owned by Standard Bank. The development team, for example, utilised the current hardware and software infrastructure, which included an SQL 2005 Database, SQL Reporting Services, Microsoft Excel and SharePoint - which allows users to publish reports online.

Due to the timeline constraints, the nature of the development was challenging. "The commitment from BIPS was outstanding, and the hours worked were significant. The timing constraints of a compliance-driven project is daunting and the development complex; however, our team met it, which is undoubtedly indicative of their hard work and dedication," comments Daniel Morais.

"Although the timeline was tough, we realised that we had to pull out all the stops as Standard Bank was faced with regulatory requirements, which meant that the reporting solution had to be up and running to meet the September 2007 deadline," adds Gerhard van Niekerk, BI and Systems developer at BIPS.

The Standard Bank's reporting tool is now utilised by the Corporate and Investment Banking division in South Africa, which can also be accessed by its operations in Isle of Man and Jersey, enabling the teams to generate reports, which adhere to the stringent reporting guidelines set by the Basel II accord.