Integration, semantics and explanations.

Dear community members, 
Last week I was talking to a former client, executive of one of the first European Banks implementing Bank Analyzer-Basel II. 

The main topic of the discussion was integration in Banking Systems; he agreed that integration is key word in banking architecture for the oncoming years but he had some doubts about the capacity of SAP for becoming the leader in core banking information systems, as it has achieved leadership in many other industries (chemical, mass distribution, utilities, telecommunications, etc.) 

In his opinion banking executives request levels of “flexibility” on the Information Systems that “packaged” solution can’t offer. 

We discussed about some examples of integration scenarios in which SAP Banking has a competitive advantage. 

For instance, building Financial Instruments sub-ledger with AFI-Bank Analyzer, integrated with SAP-Banking Services and SAP-General Ledger has significant advantages over other competitors. 

1. The Source Data Layer of Bank Analyzer offers a great opportunity of reconciling Transactional and Operational Data between the Bank Analyzer and Banking Services system, which will be the basis for building the Accounting information. Even more with the services technology offered with the last Banking Services versions. 

2. The Financial Data Mart of BIW Business Content offers detailed reconciling functionalities between the sub-ledger accounting postings, coming from the Results Data Layer and the Balance Processing, and the aggregated accounting postings coming from the General Ledger. 

3. The Risk and Accounting integrated vision of the Financial Database offers reconciling functionalities between the main parameters for Solvency and Accounting calculations. 
For instance, with the IFRA we can calculate the Rating of a business segment (of a contract represented by this business segment) by following the IRB approach of Basel II, using the Bank Analyzer Historical Database, and utilize this rating for calculating the Risk Weighted Assets and Capital Requirements of the Bank, and reconciling this Rating with the Fair Value Calculation of the Loans for the IFRS-Notes. 

4. The multipurpose cash-flow generator of the Source Data Layer offers the possibility of reconciling the liquidity information of the Balance Processing-Maturity Grouping with the Liquidity Requirements for Basel III. Even more with the “accelerated” functionalities of HANA. 

But this is just the beginning, in my opinion the common semantics of the SAP components, Profit Analyzer, Business Planning and Consolidation, Business Information Warehouse will offer many more integration scenarios in the future, for Instance: 
- Reconciling planning and simulation data of Business Planning and Consolidation with Actual Data of the Balance Processing Financial Statements. 

- Reconciling the Opportunity Interest for Asset and Liability Management simulation with the Opportunity Interest calculated by the Internal Costs calculation engine of Profit Analyzer. 

And many more. 

Looking forward to read your opinions. 
Kind Regards. 
Ferran.