Why GTBank has struggled with its swap to Finacle

On the morning of October 14, GTBank, a Nigerian financial institution with a market cap of ₦ 1.5 trillion, accomplished its swap to Finacle, its new core banking platform, a transfer that was a 12 months within the making. A key a part of the method of transferring from its earlier platform Foundation concerned GTBank’s tech group and engineers from Infosys, the Indian IT firm that constructed Finacle, spending the earlier weekend migrating buyer knowledge.

Whereas the financial institution instructed its 32.8 million retail prospects that they may full transactions on October 14, the fact for purchasers was failed transfers and misguided debit and credit score alerts. Many purchasers complained on social media—these complaints have continued this week—even because the financial institution did not share additional updates since Wednesday. 

Switching a core banking software takes a number of steps, however transferring knowledge and integrating channels are essentially the most troublesome. Whereas the info migration was profitable, integrating the financial institution’s channels (playing cards, on-line banking, and APIs) into Finacle was tougher than the financial institution anticipated, one particular person with direct data of the method stated. 

Regardless of round the clock efforts, the groups haven’t totally built-in all of the channels into Finacle. An engineer at GTBank instructed TechCabal that the mixing could be accomplished within the coming weeks however failed to present a particular timeline. 

GTBank didn’t reply to a request for feedback. 

“Integrating channels into a brand new core banking platform is among the trickiest elements of a core banking swap, particularly for a financial institution like GT with many channels. No one can carry out a banking transaction with out channels,” a guide for Temenos, one of many world’s largest core banking functions, instructed TechCabal. 

“Some banks flip off all channels [during a core banking switch] for a seamless migration, however I assume GTBank couldn’t afford to cease working,” the guide added. 

That concept might clarify why GTBank didn’t prohibit buyer entry to its banking providers in the course of the course of. As an alternative, the financial institution allowed prospects to transact with out receiving debit or credit score alerts in the course of the knowledge migration, which used knowledge from the night of Friday, October 11, an individual with direct data of the method instructed TechCabal. 

Prospects who processed transactions obtained the alerts solely after the migration to Finacle was accomplished. Many GTBank customers on X posted about misguided transaction alerts the week after the migration. 

GTBank’s struggles spotlight the complexities of huge technological modifications and present how costly and time-consuming they will get. The planning earlier than an precise swap begins can take as much as one 12 months, and banks pays as a lot as ₦25 billion yearly for software program licenses. 

Core banking consultants and engineers just like the Infosys group sometimes receives a commission $50 every day in addition to lodging, airplane tickets, feeding, and the switching price. “No value was spared,” one particular person concerned within the course of instructed TechCabal. 

For the reason that weekend of October 11, GTBank has accommodated its core banking group and Infosys engineers in inns near its Victoria Island headquarters. These groups are nonetheless within the strategy of integrating the financial institution’s varied channels, even after working by means of the weekend and into the next week.

In a single occasion of exhaustion, an engineer left his group for a nap in the course of the migration course of, solely to be woken up inside 20 minutes by his colleagues who urgently wanted his help.

Given the unknown timeline for profitable integration, GTBank prospects might must brace for extra frustration, particularly as wage week approaches, when transaction volumes sometimes spike.