In its final installment of a three part series of workshops created specifically for Risk Management in Jordan’s commercial banks, the Association of Banks of Jordan (ABJ) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality Program (SABEQ), presented today a workshop for senior level bank managers exploring the importance of IT as an element in their ability to manage risk.
Selecting appropriate IT solutions to meet any requirement is a challenge, and banks are no exception to the challenge. In fact banks want to acquire all the IT solutions available, but should acquire only the solutions they need. In other words, commercial banks in Jordan need to approach IT solution acquisition for risk management, in a methodical manner, to avoid either excessive expenditure on unnecessary solutions, or disappointment when the solutions acquired do not solve the problems at hand.
The workshop consisted of enthused discussions about various topics and their relevance to Jordan. The topics discussed included ideas for advanced underlying architecture (Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP); discussion of integrated core banking systems v. mix of processing systems developed in-house with product line solutions from range of different vendors, prospects for modernization; considerations in choosing an IT solution for risk management (packaged solutions v. customized development, in-house v. outsourced development); data management planning; acceptable solutions that fall short of the desired performance; and discussions of taking steps toward intelligent procurement of IT solutions for risk management.
At the end of this series of workshops, the number of individuals trained as trainers and better risk managers stand at more than 70 from several Jordanian commercial banks. The workshops began in May of this year and continued through to the end of August. This series of workshops has been part of an on-going partnership and collaboration between ABJ and USAID through its SABEQ Program to enhance the productivity and efficiency of financial institutions in Jordan.
The USAID-funded Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality Program (SABEQ) is a five year broad economic development initiative implemented by BearingPoint, Inc. and a sizeable team of international and Jordanian partner firms. By both supporting improvements in the business environment and providing assistance to expand innovation and productivity in Jordanian businesses, to support the main objective of building up the private sector as a powerful engine of economic growth.
