Customers

Landsbanki

"Business Objects Global Services has used BusinessObjects Data Integrator to provide Landsbanki with an open and flexible architecture that can support diverse business intelligence requirements from regulatory reporting to creating a single customer view."

Thorbergur Olafsson,
head of business intelligence,
Landsbanki

Challenge

Supporting strong domestic and international expansion
Established in 1885, Landsbanki is Iceland’s oldest full-service commercial bank. Following privatisation in 2003, the bank has expanded rapidly both domestically and across Europe with the development of financial services to small and medium sized businesses. Landsbanki currently has 40 branches and sub-branches throughout Iceland, plus a wide-ranging international network, employing over 2,500 people.

The bank counts over one third of the Icelandic population as customers of its retail and corporate banking services, and is now rapidly expanding it subsidiary and investment banking business. To support this growth, Landsbanki recognised the need to improve the quality and timeliness of operational and customer information.

Furthermore, Landsbanki needed to meet the increasingly complex requirements of the new Basel II reports that have to be delivered to the regulator. “Landsbanki needs to develop a single, consistent source of high quality information to support its on going domestic and international growth,” says Thorbergur Olafsson, head of Business Intelligence, Landsbanki.

Approach

A datawarehouse to deliver a single source of information
Landsbanki has been using BusinessObjects Crystal Reports since 2001, reporting from both operational systems and a datawarehouse, migrating to BusinessObjects XI™ in 2005.

However, Olafsson explains, "The underlying structure of the database is complex, requiring users to understand data quality and data architecture issues."

"By consolidating all reporting onto a new datawarehouse, Landsbanki can improve the quality and consistency of operational and customer information whilst automating compliance to Basel II."

Working with Business Objects Global Services and local partner Skyrr, Landsbanki has designed, built and delivered a datawarehouse, using BusinessObjects Data Integrator™ to clean and transform data.

"Business Objects Global Services provided not only expert knowledge on BusinessObjects Data Integrator but also vital experience in the design and development of the ETL architecture and the development of the data warehouse environment," Olafsson confirms.

With a deadline to meet the new requirements of Basel II reporting by the end of Q1 2007, the bank opted to focus initially on loading data from core systems holding creditor information. "To determine Landsbanki’s capital risk exposure, Data Integrator provides detailed analysis of creditor information to a third party Basel II reporting solution," he says.

Results

Automated regulatory reporting and platform for a single customer view
BusinessObjects Global Services is now expanding the datawarehouse to support diverse business requirements, extending the source systems beyond retail and corporate banking. Furthermore, consultants are working with Landsbanki to migrate information from the old datawarehouse to the new environment using BusinessObjects Data Integrator. Users will increasingly access reports via the BusinessObjects web portal on demand.

"Using BusinessObjects XI, Landsbanki can now distribute information much more easily and more widely than before; all reports are in one place and can be refreshed on demand irrespective of user location," he says.

Landsbanki currently has 500 users of BusinessObjects XI reports, which is set to increase by 50% over the next couple of years as the bank expands the new datawarehouse.

Benefits of the data warehouse development include:

Risk Exposure
The enterprise data warehouse now provides the information required to support Landsbanki’s third party Basel II reporting solution. The consolidated risk exposure information also increases credit risk understanding across the business.

Customer View
The bank has now built a platform for the creation of a single source of customer information for its Credit Risk Department. In the future, consolidated customer credit information will be used by a CRM application to drive cross-selling and up-selling, as well as deliver increased understanding of trends in customer churn in this area.

Expansion Plans
To date, Landsbanki’s business intelligence has focused primarily on Credit information. As the bank continues its global expansion, there is a drive towards expanding the retail and corporate banking information and also including investment and subsidiary information to the warehouse. Furthermore, the bank is also growing through acquisition, placing new demands on the business intelligence infrastructure.

"Credit exposure information related to an acquisition has to be included within the Basel II reporting within three months. Using BusinessObjects Data Integrator, Landsbanki can rapidly add new data sources to the warehouse in response to specific business requirements," Olafsson says.

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