The shift from Finware to Oracle FLEXCUBE was a defining point in HDFC Bank’s digital journey. Read more.

Business context

In 2009, HDFC Bank found it difficult to scale their infrastructure in step with growing business volumes. The existing technology ecosystem was just not able to cope. At the time, the bank relied on two separate core banking systems, Finware and UBS, which demanded substantial investments and continuous hardware upgrades for individual infrastructure maintenance. The bank needed to meld both core banking systems into a single core banking solution– Oracle FLEXCUBE.

Solution deployed

HDFC Bank and Oracle initiated the first phase of the project by migrating their retail banking system from Finware to FLEXCUBE over a period of 18 months. The second phase of the project involved migrating and merging the wholesale banking system UBS into the FLEXCUBE system. The Bank’s 4500+ branches and a substantial market share in eCommerce payments made this an extremely complex undertaking. The success of this initiative hinged on its ability ensuring zero business downtime.

Benefits

As a result of the infrastructural overhaul, the bank was able to achieve the following:

• Cost-effectiveness: Single core banking browser-based system for users and automation of manual activities and reduced IT maintenance and license costs
• Regulatory compliance: Unified regulatory reporting system and compliance with BASEL and FATCA
• Customer focus: Support for organic growth
• Technology upgrade: HDFC Bank moved to the Oracle SuperCluster RAS architecture, achieved eligibility to upgrade to Oracle 12c as well as higher scalability and availability