HSBC banking platform pays for itself

HSBC is consolidating systems

HSBC's $1bn global project to move its disparate banking systems onto one global platform has now paid for itself halfway through the scheme - which is due to finish by 2011.

The One HSBC project involves moving 55 core banking systems, 24 credit card systems and 41 internet banking systems onto a single platform, as well as consolidating 130 datacentres into four pairs around the world.

"This is a customer play as well as a cost play," said Ken Harvey, chief technology and services officer. "The customer experience will be standardised the world over."

The large group of disparate systems came about because of the bank's rapid acquisition strategy. The new platform should also help the company expand more quickly.

"It will allow us to go into new markets for tens of millions of dollars rather than hundreds of millions of dollars," said Harvey.

The system will give banks a single view of customers, as well as providing a single front-end to customers and staff alike.

By bringing disparate systems together it also cuts out staff needed to process transactions between platforms, thus saving money.

The bank has built much of its own software from scratch, embedding multi-lingual and multi-currency functions from the start.