Jim Sinur: ME Bank is Taking on the Big Banks with BPM

Thursday, October 24, 2013

ME Bank is Taking on the Big Banks with BPM

Members Equity Bank is a fully Australian-owned, regulated bank. It was established by a collection of industry superannuation (pension) funds. The Bank was built to provide a genuine banking alternative to Australia’s four leading banks – creating, as its motto suggests, a fairer way to bank. ME Bank consistently offers lower rates and charges than the big four banks to the industry fund and union members, and it is aggressively taking market share as customers seek an alternative to the big four's perceived oligopoly. As smaller bank in Australia with limited branch coverage the Bank relies on mobile bankers and has recently released an innovative portable workplace bank that makes banking more convenient. ME Bank has in excess of 300,000 customers and more than 800 employees.

Getting to Revenue Faster First:

The first round of implementation is leveraging BPM for customers to open their own accounts in minutes. ME Bank this week completed a major milestone in its three year technology transformation project and is on track to finish the project within its original timeframes next year. The bank is implementing a new business process management platform, a new reporting platform, and a new core banking system, a project that will make it one of the most technologically advanced banks in Australia. The ‘straight-through’ transaction process verifies customers’ identities online and at the end of the process provides them with an account number, BSB, internet banking login and dispatches a transaction card to arrive within days. ME Bank is one of only a few banks in Australia that offer this service.

The Incremental Transformation Continues:

ME Bank will move its remaining deposit products onto the new BPM platform at the completion of the second stage of Transformation in early 2014 followed by its loan products at the third and final stage later in 2014. The second and third stages will also see ME Bank’s deposit and loan products moved onto a new T24 core banking system. A new reporting platform, Insight, will also go live in the second stage.

Jamie McPhee, ME Bank CEO, said “One of the benefits of being a young challenger bank is we’re not encumbered by a host of legacy systems that can have a major impact on project scope, time, and cost. To expedite a project of this scale you also need a robust methodology, which means thorough planning, a staged approach so you don’t try to implement too much at once, the right people in the right positions combined with reliable suppliers and the discipline to keep the project and its deliverables within scope. Transformation will be a major enabler for ME Bank, unleashing a wave of product and service innovation and operational efficiencies. We’ll have the ability to bring new products and services to market faster, critical in an increasingly digitized market where customers’ expectations for what banks can and should deliver is expanding and accelerating. We’ll also have an enhanced capacity to handle very high customer numbers without impacting service levels and operating costs, also critical for a young and growing bank that’s hungry to challenge the dominance of the big four.” McPhee said the entire project is centered on improving ‘customer experience’ and capability, and will enable ME Bank to challenge the majors like never before by giving ‘real edge’ to its fairer approach. The transformation will add real muscle to a bank that already has a lot of heart, a potent combination in an environment where the majors are tolerated for being secure, efficient and effective.”

Net; Net:

ME Bank is taking the smart approach of going for revenue quickly to fund an incremental transformation that will allow for aggressive growth and a better customer experience. Adding and retaining customers while increasing revenue is the battle cry right now for business, so this approach is a sure-fire win. This transformation is linked to an industrial strength intelligent business process management platform (iBPMS).