Don Wehby

Grace, Kennedy is to spend about US$1 million to place its commercial bank subsidiary -- FirstGlobal Bank -- and its merchant bank -- George & Branday -- on one computer platform as a prerequisite for fully effectuating the merger of the banks announced last month.

Grace says that the computer integration is to be completed by March next year.

The software to be used, called RIBS, was developed by a Canadian firm, and is also used by the Royal Bank of Canada.

"It will cost close to US$1 million on software, hardware and consultants," Don Wehby, the chief financial officer of Grace's finance division told the Business Observer yesterday.

Wehby said that the software integration was part of Grace's strategic plan to increase competitiveness of its banking service, thus allowing "customers to access online banking" and also "facilitating the addition of new services".

The software is expected to have a three to five year life span, excluding upgrades.

"It is an investment well worth it," he said. "It will bring efficiency, and productivity to employees and customer services."

The merged entity will include Grace Pension Management and the lease financing company, Global Capital Services Limited. Two full-time consultants are now working to fit the leasing company and the pension fund onto this platform.

Last month, George & Branday was fitted with the software which was always on FirstGlobal's core system.

Under the merger, the commercial banking entity -- FirstGlobal Bank -- and George & Branday will come together, and will be known as FirstGlobal Bank Limited.

Currently the auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers is in the process of advising management on possible staff cuts.

"We have told the staff of both George & Branday and FirstGlobal that the selection process will be done in a transparent manner," said Wehby. "But both banks are growing and if there are any lay-offs, it will be minimal."

The enlarged group will have capital of $1 billion, and total assets of $25 billion.

The Grace institutions are among the local banks that are now undergoing information technology upgrades, partly because of mergers and the introduction of newer and more efficient software.

Last week, Dehring Bunting & Golding announced that it would spend US$300,000 on a software "add-on" to enable the integration of the Issa Trust Merchant Bank software with that of DB&G. The company said that a totally new software would have cost US$1.2 to $1.5 million. The software implementation will be completed in December, and upgraded again in five years.

Last year, National Commercial Bank announced that it would invest US$52 million in cutting-edge banking technology over the coming years, and since mid-year, has been able to introduce Internet banking.

In the merger of CIBC and Barclay's Bank that created FirstCaribbean, the bank estimated last year that for the first three years of integration, some US$76 million in associated one-time charges would be spent -- the cost including information technology.

The top 100 international banks are expected to replace their core IT systems and spend US$3 billion this year to US$6.5 billion by 2005, according to the Financial Times newspaper which quoted a Celnet Communications report.

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