Unified Banking Process Framework

Banking institutions, along with other segments of the financial services industry, continue to face pressure for massive transformation sparked by the regional and global financial crisis. The ability to transform successfully rests on the Technology & Operations side of the business, which must be ready to step up to the task.

However, while banks have been documenting their processes and operations for years, they have not attempted to do so in a systematic, integrated and usable fashion to meet education and training needs, as well as real-time, problem solving and collaboration needs for current and future Technology & Operations professionals across the global industry.

To bridge this gap, the SMU-School of Information Systems (SIS) has taken the lead to develop the Unified Banking Process Framework (UBPF) in collaboration with the banking industry and technology experts. The UBPF is a systematic way to understand and analyse linkages across banking products, enabling processes, technology solutions and management supervision.

As illustrated below, the UBPF provides coherent views organised in three broad areas of (i) Processes, Operations &Technology, (ii) Technology & Operations Management and (iii) Change Scenarios & Collaboration.

Students whose work focuses mainly on "processes, operations and technology" may find the UBPF Views 2, 3, 4 and 5 most relevant to them. Similarly, those who manage IT transformation projects may find the UBPF Views 6,7,8,9 and 10 more central to their area/focus of work. For senior management, they may be more keen on the UBPF Views 9, 10 and 11.

The UBPF provides a solid foundation for our curriculum and our courses are designed to take full advantage of it. In addition to the MITB programme, other groups in the financial services industry who may use the UBPF as a collaboration and training model/framework include but certainly are not limited to:

• T&O Project Managers
• Consulting professional staff in conducting business engagements
• Bank IT staff orientation and induction

The UBPF is acknowledged by many of the leading global banks operating in Singapore as the world's most comprehensive, university-based, open-knowledge effort to systematise and visualise banking processes and enabling information technology knowledge. We welcome suggestions and contributions from the industry to further evolve the UBPF content and examples so that it stays relevant to your business and applications.