BANKING NEWS: LOCAL
Young professionals
exposed to current trends
in banking
R1bn
for SMEs
In June this year, SimArch, in association with Riskflow,
conducted the Online Bank Management Contest
(OBMC) 2014 for young banking professional across
Africa.
The professionals were exposed to a unique and
valuable learning experience that provided them with
insight into the current challenges in the African banking
industry, the development of Basel III in Africa, and issues
in compliance, governance and risk management.
Each invited bank could enrol a maximum of four
teams. Each team comprised three to four young
professionals with a maximum of five years’ banking
experience.
For testimonials on this programme, visit
www.simarch.com/obmc
Having earmarked R1bn for financing small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) during the 2013/2014
financial period, Business Partners, a specialist risk
finance company for formal SMEs, not only delivered,
but exceeded its goal of assisting businesses that
contribute significantly to the economy. This is
according to the company’s 2013/2014 financial
results, which revealed that, in total, 386 investments
were approved to the value of R1 082,6m during the
12-month period.
The value of approvals represents a significant
increase of 21,4% from the R891,7m approved in
the previous financial year. The number of approved
investments also increased by 16,6% in comparison
with the previous financial year.
SmartStream:
powering growth through automation
The unprecedented growth in the banked population across Africa is
forcing financial institutions in the region to seek ways in which to
achieve greater efficiency and control, while driving down costs and
managing risk.
In order to meet these challenges, organisations require operational
excellence, straight-through-processing and scalable back-office
operations. However, many firms still process their transactions
manually, resulting in avoidable errors, increased trade breaks and
unnecessary cost to the business.
As a result, many of them are reviewing their processes, and
SmartStream is seeing an increasing level of interest in transaction
processing solutions from organisations across the region.
As the market-leading provider of transaction lifecycle
management, SmartStream is uniquely positioned to help financial
institutions to overcome their transaction processing issues though
greater automation and control. Its suite of Transaction Lifecycle
Management (TLM) solutions includes best-in-class transaction
matching; workflow and exceptions-based processing; fully
automated corporate actions processing; and static and reference data
management services.
Offering the performance, flexibility and control required to
manage all transactions on a real-time basis, these solutions help
firms to contain cost, improve scalability and reduce operational risk.
SmartStream has an established client base in Africa, providing a
full range of middle and back-office solutions through a direct sales
operation, with assistance from channel partners in certain markets.
The 2013 opening of an office in Johannesburg demonstrates the
company’s intention to invest resources in the rapidly developing
African market.
As financial institutions in the region continue to experience a
high level of growth, the need for automation is becoming more
pressing. By establishing a local presence, SmartStream is not only
able to provide a better service to its existing clients, but can also
help other firms in the region by delivering scalable and flexible
transaction processing environments.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +27 11 881 5450 l Web: www.smartstream-stp.com
Roland Brandli: Sales Manager Africa, at SmartStream
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