mBank

The bank needed to significantly update its budget system to adapt it to the new business model.

Solution category

• Controlling
• Financial Consolidation

mBank is one of the largest financial institutions in Poland both in terms of capital and the diversity of products offered. mBank specialises in comprehensive services for companies and is one of the leaders in on-line retail banking via one of the most modern internet platforms. The dynamics of mBank, in addition to its significant market position, is evidenced by numerous awards and top distinctions received from opinion-leading and governmental institutions.

Challenge

The bank needed to significantly update its budget system to adapt it to the new business model. It was necessary, among other things, to unify data structures with the reporting system, budgeting in original currencies, efficient exchange rate management, presentation of data in the investor - Commerzbank layout, budget calculation on the basis of performance and detailing selected thematic areas (e.g. RWA, shadow-accounting, depreciation of assets and fixed assets). An additional requirement was to shorten the time needed for data conversion by the system, as well as the introduction of solutions allowing for further expansion of the system in the future without affecting its performance.

Solution

The new solution is based on Infor CPM software (currently d/EPM) supported by Microsort technology. The system was placed on a modern 64-bit architecture, situated in three environments: development, pre-production and production.

An important assumption of the implementation was to obtain functionalities allowing for carrying out a complete planning process, therefore each stage of work was completed with the production commissioning of complete system modules, and the calendar of works was subordinated to the schedule of budget sessions.
 
The aim of the first stage was to prepare the system to carry out a full planning process for the Bank for the next financial year. The system consists of 3 basic business data models: costs, income, central (reporting).

The cost model is used for input, calculation and presentation of the Bank's costs with division into cost items, cost categories, currencies and organizational units (including Head Office departments).

The income model is used to input, calculate and present the Bank's Balance Sheet and Interest Income by product, profit-center units, sectors, currencies and financial divisions.
 
The central model is used to calculate and present the Bank's Income Statement reports, broken down by divisions, profit-center units and subject categories.

As part of the work, the current version of the system was installed and configured on new environments, the Bank's budget models were built along with a data exchange mechanism, a system for feeding execution and reporting data at the Bank level, and a central metadata management module.
 
In the next stage, the work was focused on preparing the system to carry out the full planning process of the mBank Group in subsequent periods.
 
In addition, as part of the project a Group Model was implemented, equipped with a financial consolidation mechanism, used for reporting on the plan and performance of the mBank Group.
 
In the model, mBank Group companies plan their costs, balance sheet and income statement with mutual eliminations, then consolidated adjustments are applied. The whole thing makes up the consolidated report of the mBank Group.
 
During the system stabilisation phase, additions were made to the budget calculation mechanisms resulting from the first year of operation of the new models.
 
An important element of the implementation process was the adopted model of cooperation emphasising the transfer of knowledge, allowing the Bank's employees to react in the future to changes in the system and to implement new functionalities by their own efforts in an ad-hoc mode.

Results

The entire implementation process was completed in just 12 months while meeting all business expectations. The implemented system comprehensively supports the Bank's planning model and at the same time ensures its openness for future development.