“Banco BAI Europa” (BAIE) began its activity in Portugal in 1998 as a branch of “Banco Angolano de Investimentos” (BAI) with headquarters in Luanda founded in November 1996. It has two agencies, one in Lisbon and the other in Porto. Since September 2002, by changing its legal status from branch to subsidiary, Banco BAI Europa, S.A. (BAIE) was born, a financial institution governed by Portuguese law, regulated by the rules of the Bank of Portugal.
About "Banco BAI Europa"
- Three times considered as the No. 1 Bank in Angola in terms of assets by The Banker magazine (2013, 2017, 2018);
- Four consecutive times considered by Global Finance magazine as the safest bank in Angola (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020);
- Nine times considered the Best Bank in Angola by Euromoney Magazine (2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023);
- Three times considered the Best Bank in Angola by Global Finance (2021, 2022, 2023);
- Twice considered the Safest Bank in Angola by Global Finance (2022, 2023);
By net assets, BAI is the 13th largest bank on the African continent and “reference banking partner in selected market niches”.
BAIE offers credit solutions for companies and saving solutions for individuals, and is also active in investment banking (structured financing and corporate finance) .
Teaser
By combining IBM’s leading technology with KPMG professionals’ in-depth knowledge in financial services, Banco BAI Europa not only accelerated its compliance process but opened its banking infrastructure for new fintech solutions – all without compromising security efforts.
The open banking platform empowers the business to bring new, third-party services, directly to its customers.
Business Challenge
The rapidly evolving regulatory landscape continues to pose challenges on banks to keep up with the changing demands around compliance. Coupled with the increasing complexity and granularity in regulatory requirements and the new technology developments, banks face further pressure on already stretched resources and budgets.
Banco BAI Europa wanted to leverage APIs as the new building blocks of the financial services delivery transformation, thus creating a new open banking platform with an aggressive roadmap for 2023 and beyond, with the delivery of the following projects/solutions:
The solution
The bank wanted to expand its ecosystem, and at the same time provide customers with a top-notch banking experience and new fintech services. So, a holistic and cloud-based end-to-end solution was defined as the corner stone for the integrations, using IBM Cloud Pak for Integration and a KPMG’s dedicated team of specialists on defining the most relevant strategic approach.
Banco BAI Europa decided to build and deliver a robust, secure, and scalable API solution that would help BAIE open to work with different fintech companies while maintaining the same level of security, reliability, and efficiency with its internal systems.
This solution was the base for the launching of several initiatives:
Technological stack
BAIE has invested in IBM cutting-edge technology, the Cloud Pak for Integration, that serves as the bedrock platform supporting all the integration needs of the Bank, with IBM API Connect (APIC) as the solution to design and deploy new APIs easily and securely via IBM Security Access Manager, and efficiently integrate on-premises systems.
The utilization of APIC also facilitated the CI/CD process in the agile and DevOps Software Development Life Cycle, streamlining deployments and reducing human intervention and error where possible. A robust and resilient structure is essential to process outgoing and incoming APIs, so the platform also relies on IBM DataPower Gateway technology to secure transaction routing and connections with mobile devices. IBM Message Queue (MQ) as a universal messaging backbone with robust connectivity for flexible and reliable messaging for applications and the integration of existing IT assets using a service-oriented architecture (SOA).
The outcome
- Promotion of business growth with a flexible platform that can readily accommodate new services;
- Protection of customer data while streamlining third-party integrations;
- Manages compliance meeting regulatory deadlines while keeping development costs low;
- Extension of customer value by expanding access to leading banks and financial services providers;
- Increase the speed and efficiency of onboarding new partners, the API management also allow partners to rapidly connect with the bank and easily test APIs.
