DFC moves with the times

Press, 15 April 1986, Page 33

DFC moves with the times

The Development Finance Corporation has announced the signing of a contract to buy and develop an international electronic banking system which will cost $5 million in the first phase. Announcing DFC’s plans to develop the system using Wang hardware and software, DFC’s general manager, Mr Murray

Smith, said the movement into total financial services in the deregulated market demanded new systems and new approaches to information gathering and processing. “The barriers between the different sectors of our business are now disappearing — between international and domestic, between personal and

commercial, between assets and liabilities, between fee-based and in-terest-bearing,’’ he said. “As products that cross organisational or structural boundaries become more common, complete and accurate profiles of clients’ accounts are necessary to be able to assess risks and market new services to selected

groups of clients.”

Mr Smith said the centralised and integrated nature of the new system will mean that irrespective of where in the world a transaction occurs DFC’s central information or data base will be immediately updated. “It will be possible to produce instantly a complete profile of our business relationship with, for instance, a multi-national corporation where millions of dollars may potentially be at risk, or where the extent of the client’s over-all relationship with DFC justifies differential pricing or special service.” Not only will the system eventually enable better client servicing, but it will help the development, pricing and delivery and, hence, marketing of new financial services to selected groups, Mr Smith said.

DFC’s information systems manager, Mr Kelvin Nixon, said that the contract between Wang and DFC is essentially that of a "working partnership.” Wang is accepting prime contract responsibility for all software, and providing support services on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week basis — a first for the company in New Zealand. With the encouragement of its parent company, Wang is also establishing full sales, support and software development facilities in New Zealand to support the financial community. “Wang’s readiness to take responsibility in the project, together with their design philosphy for centralised and integrated software systems were two of the key reasons for their winning the tender,” he said.

The contract provides for the installation of an

international network working out of Wellington, using the latest computer, communications and software technology Wang has available. The system will be built during the next 12 months with some existing application software being converted or brought in from Wang offices overseas. Other software will be jointly developed using the company’s recently released database and fourth generation language facility, Pace.

Each of DFC’s working units will have its own system for daily transactions. New hardware will be added as required, enabling the system to grow with the corporation’s needs.

The DFC is already using technology in an innovative manner to deliver financial services to the client’s home or office with its videotex-based financial management or “home banking” service.

This latest move with Wang clearly signals DFC’c intention to consolidate its position in the deregulated market as a leading and innovative commercial financial services group. It comes not long after the corporation’s receipt of an AA credit rating from the international rating agency, Standard and Poors’, and its purchase of a 17 storey tower block now being built on Wellington’s waterfront as a new head and regional office complex. It also follows the recent announcement of the Government’s intention to introduce an amendment to the DFC’s Act, removing remaining restrictions on the corporation’s role and enabling it to raise up to 25 per cent of its share capital from the private sector.