Banco de Credito, the largest banking organization in Peru with more than 220 branches, leaped ahead of the country’s banking environment when it began a partnership in 1995 with Fidelity Information Services (Fidelity), a division of Fidelity National Financial. Credicorp Group, the bank’s parent company, implemented a financial solution conversion project that included Fidelity’s Customer Information System, Transaction System, Advanced Lending Solutions (ALS) Servicing Manager, Savings/Time Deposit System and ALS Online Collections modules. Following quickly behind this initial project was Banco de Credito’s sister consumer-finance company with the implementation and integration of Fidelity's Transaction System, Integrated Monetary Processing and Control System (IMPACS), Savings/Time Deposit and ALS Servicing Manager solutions.
"Fidelity’s financial solutions were chosen because they met the projected growth for the bank with the least amount of modification, while maintaining the highest level of customer satisfaction," said Ricardo Bustamante, Banco de Credito’s chief information officer. "Fidelity provides the ability to easily integrate into Banco de Credito’s current technical environment and the flexibility to create new products quickly enough to meet customers’ needs. This has allowed us to remain one step ahead of our competition in the ever-changing financial services market in Peru."
"From day one we believed the partnership with Banco de Credito marked an opportunity to help it lead the way in the ever-changing global marketplace," said Prakash Jalihal, Fidelity senior vice president and director of the Latin America region. "Our goals were to complete the initial conversion project as seamlessly as possible and further enable Banco de Credito to focus on its business and development strategies."
Banco de Credito also chose Fidelity for its support expertise. "We considered several other financial services providers, but chose Fidelity because of its support staff, who are available to assist the bank with issues as well as new projects," Bustamante said. "Providing our financial organization with this high-level support and technical expertise has allowed us to leverage our ongoing development efforts."
The economic outlook for Peru over the next few years is focused on increasing business opportunities by attracting investments from international companies, resulting in a wider range of new business for banks in Peru. Expectations are that this growth will result in additional competition from international banks. "Banco de Credito must be prepared to take advantage of this new business, while remaining competitive in the new products and services that are offered by large international banks," Bustamante said.
Fidelity is an integral part of Banco de Credito’s expansion plans outside of Peru. "We believe Fidelity’s core deposits offerings will also assist Banco de Credito in operating in the global marketplace," Bustamante said. "Entering markets outside of Peru will require greater flexibility in overall operations and software. We believe Fidelity provides the flexibility that we need."
This article appeared in the June 2000 issue of Fidelity's client newsletter.