Foreign Finance Bank (FFB) in troubled waters with a lot at stake, found its feet on the ground again with SOL Banking

The Bankers at AFIC Bank believed in Branchless Banking for managing 8 of their branches but did not have the toolset to implement it and get started. The main system used by them was a DOS based version which was inflexible, branch specific and not user friendly. When the opportunity came to evaluate other online banking solutions, they jumped on it and soon chose SOL Banking.

About FFB

Foreign Finance Bank was incorporated in 2015. FFB got a banking license as International Commercial Bank from Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority (Union of Comoros). FFB provides banking services for private and commercial clients without requirement to be residents of Union of Comoros. FFB implemented advanced compliance program called AML-CTF-KYC. This program helps FFB and its clients to avoid suspicious payments.

The Challenges

“Server to Server (S2S)” Account Transfer transactions had stacked up for FFB and needed a ‘Clean Up’ on urgent basis.

Owner Dr. Reza Hossienpour and IT Manager Mr. Mike Jefferson’s first priority at FFB was to clear the pending backlog with Server to Server Account transfers for some of the transactions which have been waiting for months. “We are a newly established online banking infrastructure; we are looking for banking software for our online bank. We as an online medium mostly dealing with server to server fund transfers and because of its low transfer cost to our clients they tend more to this service of our banking facilities. Please let us know if you can provide such core banking software for us.” as quoted by Dr. Hossienpour.

The deal for the first phase was to handover the part where KYC can be created, approved, an account can then be opened, Cash can then be submitted into the created Account and the same can then be transferred ‘Server to Server’ to an overseas account. “The deal is that you do this (S2S) and deliver to us in 10 days and then we will go for the big order!” said Dr. Hossienpour. 

The Solution

Mike Jefferson inspired for an online banking system that automatically does Server to Server Account Transfer by putting in the Server IP and Server ID of the destination server along with other authentication details which automatically takes funds from the source server user account and deposits the same with shared account on the source server. Source server then transfers these funds from the Shared Account to the Shared account of the receiver server using the IP/ID combination provided by the receiving bank and other authentication information. “It should be a seamless transaction where Receiving Bank Manager would be informed about the S2S transfer and he then takes on the responsibility of passing over the received funds to destination accounts based on the instructions received by him separately.” said Jefferson.

SOL Banking system incorporated the above mentioned changes in a record time of 10 days and delivered the first working prototype before New Year’s Day for 2017. The solution provided also included, security at the email level which was being sent to the Bank Manager at the receiving bank which was URL encoded (such that the email containing the download codes required for downloading sent files, required the user who was opening this email to use the same IP as the one mentioned in the Server IP section of the receiving bank. FFB were thrilled to receive this entire solution in short duration and performed their pending S2S transfers using the SOL Banking Solution.

The “Big Order” (as quoted by Dr. Hossienpour) finally came up and FFB finally shifted over to SOL Banking solution completely in February 2017 owing to the successful implementation of the S2S funds transfer which FFB needed urgently.

Results

Dr. Hossienpour and Mike Jefferson’s idea to give SOL Banking system a chance has really worked wonders for them. Not only that they now have a secured system that they needed for their day to day activity, they benefitted the most by the business flow of the application which is usually the block whole for a new and emerging Bank. FFB have been able to open over 2000 different kinds of accounts using the SOL Banking system in the last quarter and these numbers are only going to go up seeing the latest trends for them.

Dr. Reza Hossienpour wishes to expand his business further in other countries using SOL Banking system as their able technology partner. An even “Bigger” picture awaits FFB as they wish to expand further and want to integrate Corporate Banking, Kiosks and ATMs, Customer Portal with various apps for Android and i-OS devices, Field officer support and Wallet solutions.