|
 PATRICIA
Cheong, regional director, Sterling Commerce
Asia—a company that provides software solutions and
managed file transfer technology—bared in an e-mailed
interview with BusinessMirror correspondent Rory Visco
how the company views the banking sector and Sterling’s
plans.
How do
you see the current trends in the Philippine banking
industry?
The use
of File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is still prevalent in
the region. With the Philippine commercial banking space
becoming increasingly competitive, coupled with an
increasing need to comply with regulatory control and
capital requirements, banks in the Philippines are
beginning to use technology to meet these challenges
[and] to differentiate themselves from the competition.
In fact, Financial Insights projects that Philippine
banks will spend $236 million on “external” technologies
this year, 14 percent more than the $207-million actual
expenditure for technology investments in 2006. To keep
pace with global competition, banks in the Philippines
are also becoming more customer-oriented. Today, they
are looking toward technology to help them meet the
increasing demands of the customer, especially around
driving greater visibility in the banking supply chain.
Some of the key business benefits banks hope to achieve
through the use of technology, such as managed file
transfer, include operational efficiency, improved
straight through processing--especially with
straight-through processing becoming a treasury best
practice—and multichannel connectivity to partners and
customers.
What can
hamper further growth?
As more
fraud and security issues continue to arise, multifactor
authentication will become increasingly important in
banks around the world. Banks also need to improve on
their abilities to respond to customers, regulators and
changes in the general economy and continue
“service-oriented architecture,” or SOA exploration,
where the success of its implementation will be
determined by issues of governance and business
management.
One of
the key initiatives we believe banks should focus on
this year is the creation and management of an
integrated financial supply chain. It is all about
connectivity between banks and their commercial
customers, together with suppliers who happen to be the
banks’ clients.
How is
your present partnership with Bank of the Philippine
Island?
When
BPI implemented the managed file transfer solution, we
made sure that the bank and their customers were not
susceptible to information loss during the course of
implementation.
BPI’s
managed file transfer built on Sterling Commerce’s
Connect:Direct point-to-point solution is the first in
the country, giving BPI the first mover advantage and a
competitive edge among the banks in the country. With
straight-through processing becoming a treasury best
practice, secure file transfer services will definitely
be the way toward helping banks provide a higher level
of service to their customers.
How is
Connect:Direct different in terms of having a secure
FTP?
Traditional FTP is very often the weakest link that
results in security breaches in an organization’s
system. Its widespread use is also sometimes why it
becomes a liability, as there is greater knowledge of
the protocol, its operations and implementations, making
it easier to manipulate and steal information from
organizations. Additionally, information uploaded on to
FTP sites is often not encrypted. Thus, sensitive
information is transmitted as clear text and can be
intercepted by hackers eavesdropping on a communications
link.
Connect:Direct provides security, predictability and
management for secure file transfer within and outside
the organization. Once transfers are scheduled,
organizations receive alerts that will inform them about
the delivery for the file. If transmission of the file
is disrupted, Connect:Direct automatically restarts and
recovers the information. |
