London, England, 6 December 2006 - Banksys, the Belgian specialist in end-to-end secure payment systems and payment processing, has gone live with Optial to support their Operational Risk Management processes. Banksys has deployed the Optial system with a broad functional scope that includes loss database, operational risk self-assessments, controls, actions and audit management.
Machteld Agneessens, Head of Internal Audit at Banksys said “Optial has more than delivered on the expectations we had when we selected their solution. They met all our requirements for a risk management methodology and overall framework on a one to one basis. We will now be able to demonstrate to all our stakeholders including the Board, shareholders and customers that we are compliant with sound industry standards for Operational Risk Management practices”.
With nearly a billion payment transactions per year, Banksys carries substantial responsibility in the Belgian economy. The organisation therefore invests continuously in the availability of its network, which again reached 100% in 2005. Deploying Optial will add an additional layer in the Banksys operational risk management, bringing together all potential risks and being able to set priorities and focus on the biggest potential risks.
Ms Agneessens continued: “Optial has met our expectations through their approach, flexibility and functional richness. Optial approached the implementation in a very structured, professional, and patient manner. By doing so, Optial successfully delivered the project on schedule and within budget. The Optial system is particularly intuitive to use and after just one day’s training we are able to make our own changes to the system as needed. These facets of Optial, particularly the user friendly, easy to use front end, strong workflow engine and highly configurable architecture, have ensured rapid user acceptance and enabled us to meet the diverse requirements for our operational risk methodology. We have also been very pleased with the risk self assessment facilities, the incident and loss event capture, action reporting and tracking together with the data export capabilities of Optial”. Banksys also believes that the software will find its way within the company for other purposes and eventually can also be used for compliance management (of course with the necessary adaptations and implementation of additional requirements).
Chris O’Brien, CEO of Optial, said, “We have been very pleased to work with Banksys, to prove the flexibility of the platform once again by delivering on schedule and budget for
one of Europe’s leading payments processors. There were a number of key success factors in the project including strong senior executive support from the start, clear project management and above all the strong commitment and focus of all project members to succeed. Ultimately a prime success factor was that the flexible Optial platform was able to meet Banksys’ diverse requirements and beyond, proving the capability to adapt to a wide variety of operating environments, from global banking to high volume payments processing.”
About Banksys
Banksys (www.banksys.com) was founded in 1989, as the result of the merger of the Mister Cash and Bancontact networks. Its principal mission is the authorization, security and guarantee of electronic payments in Belgium. Next to its processing activities, Banksys capitalizes on its know-how for the development of terminals and payment applications like “banxafe” and “Mobile banxafe”. Banksys also operates a wide set of services such as terminal maintenance and CardStop to merchants and cardholders. Banksys has approximately 1,000 employees nowadays. In 2005, Banksys performed over 986 million transactions through an acceptance network of 120,000 merchants.
About Optial
Optial (www.optial.com) has the largest installed blue-chip geographic footprint of any Operational Risk software platform: it is deployed across 50 countries by a client base including companies such as Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB), IBM and Standard Chartered Bank. It is supported from centres in London, Atlanta and Sydney.
Every firm has a unique business model and corresponding risk profile - even more pronounced for multinational firms operating across several jurisdictions. Optial doesn't try to impose 'one size fits all' processes onto its clients; rather Optial helps their clients build Total Corporate Governance by mapping an organisation structure, operational performance criteria and control processes into an overall risk model, using Optial's workflow capability to change behaviour. Optial then set up an individually-configured implementation to meet specific risk profile, language and jurisdictional reporting requirements, before deploying using zero-footprint browser technology.
The standards-based platform delivers rapid configuration, low-cost deployment and low maintenance with future-proofing. Built-in KRIs and Loss Database allow firms to align their system with Basel II requirements, while Web Services interfaces and software developer kit enables simplified integration with other systems such as HR, CRM and MIS for two-way automated data exchange and single sign on.
Press contact:
Colin Spiller, Business Development, press@optial.com, +44 (0) 20 7247 7673
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