Emirates NBD, the largest banking group in the Middle East in terms of assets, has won the 2010 Financial Sector Technology (FST London) award for systems integration project of the year.

The award was won amid stiff competition from top UK and European financial organisations, a statement said.

Emirates NBD also had the distinction of being the only Middle East financial services institution that was short listed in any of the 20 award categories.

The group was presented the award for the successful and effective IT integration and business process standardisation of its disparate legacy systems, during the merger of Emirates Bank and National Bank of Dubai.

In addition to the sheer size and complexity of the project, the award citation commended the implementation time frame and underlined the benefits accrued to the bank.

It also noted that the integration reduced reporting by half and cut analysis generation times from three days to two hours.

“The FST (London) Award is one of the most prestigious awards and recognises excellence and innovation in the field of information technology within the financial sector in the UK) and Europe, Middle East and Africa,” said Abdulla Qassem, group chief operating officer at Emirates NBD.

“We are truly proud to have won this award, where the jury recognised how the strategic use of technology brought significant cost benefits to Emirates NBD, improved internal processes and enabled the bank to move closer to future business success.”

“Successful completion of the systems integration programme was an essential cornerstone to complete the merger process and enable the banks to operate as one,” said Naushad Kermalli, senior vice president, business technology & IT post-merger management at Emirates NBD, who received the award on behalf of the bank at a ceremony, held recently in London.

“The entire integration project, including centralisation of operations for efficiency purposes, was completed over a 30 month-period.”

“The project involved integrating every application across all business lines. It included replacements of the core banking system, financial/general ledger system and retail lending system, in addition to the implementation of a new treasury system,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service