This article by Finextra investigates how Commonwealth Bank of Australia has rolled out its technology executive big guns to explain the benefits of the $1.1 billion upgrade to its core banking systems.

“The bank, which is approaching the finishing straight in a massive four-year technology upgrade programme, invested $368 million on the core banking initiative this year, migrating the majority of business deposit and transaction accounts onto the new SAP for Banking platform to sit alongside the 10 million retail accounts already on there.

Operating in a tough economic environment, the bank’s CEO Ian Narev says the technology investment programme has helped to boost productivity during a period of subdued revenue growth.

“We have worked hard at tailoring our cost base to this new lower growth environment,” says Narev. “The significant investment we have made in technology over the last five years has helped us meet this challenge to improve our productivity.”

Read the full article here