Commlink launches automation software for financial institutions

Commlink Info Tech, a local IT firm, came up with a new software solution which is designed to automate and streamline operations of financial institutions.

The software—Enterprise Information Management System (EIMS)—was launched at the two-day Bangladesh Banking Summit that began at Le Meridien Hotel in the city yesterday. Fleming, an international event management company, organised the summit in a bid to bring bankers and IT experts on a single platform.

“EIMS is a complete platform for a paperless office. The software will make clients' life easier,” said Amjad H Khan, chairman of Commlink Info Tech.

The software will also be useful for other organisations, be it a government and private office, educational institute, law firm or health service provider, he said.

EIMS provides banks with a wide range of services that include automation of the paper-based office to a clean and paperless office by managing a document library.

By using the system, any organisation such as a bank can manage its complete loan application process, he said. It is designed to manage and track all the loan status online, he added. “The software can digitise paper forms easily and quickly, which will reduce cost and time of a banker.”

Banks in Bangladesh use costly foreign software to run their operations despite availability of low-cost software developed by local IT firms. Nearly a dozen of banks have been using locally-made software for a decade, but no security concern has arisen so far. Lutfunnisa Saudia Khan, director of Commlink, said EIMS software developed abroad would have cost $2.5 million (nearly Tk 20 crore), but the locally-built software will be much cheaper.

“We don't need to give any fee to anybody for the software. We have every control over price,” she said without disclosing the asking price for the software.

Earlier at the summit, SK Sur Chowdhury, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, delivered a speech on the macro-prudential policies for financial stability.

He said macro-prudential policies are used for identifying, monitoring and preventing risks in the financial system that may threaten financial stability.

Chowdhury said the BB has developed a 'central database for large credit' to prepare a corporate 'watch list' and the preparation of a 'systemic risk dashboard' is going on.

The deputy governor also said they are working to bring a dynamic provisioning system in the context of Bangladesh.

Two __more prudential supervision tools have already been introduced, he said.

Toufiq Ahmad Choudhury, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM), said Bangladesh should not remain oblivious to cyber threats while adopting modern IT-based payment system. He said the issue of cyber security has recently come to the fore with BB's reserve fund heist and ATM scams.

“The cyber security issue has long been ignored by the banks in Bangladesh, making banking information and critical infrastructures vulnerable to cyber attacks,” Choudhury said. He also stressed creating awareness among the end-users about the modern payment system.

IT experts and entrepreneurs from home and abroad will talk on their products, such as automated teller machines (ATMs), online and mobile banking, credit insurance and cross-border payments network with the bankers. More than 50 bankers from Bangladesh have attended the summit; banks had to pay $700-$800 for each of their participant in the summit.

Prof Ahsan Habib, director for training at BIBM, also spoke.