BIAN Welcomes 27 New Members to Growing Organization Highlighting the Critical Need for Cross-Industry Collaboration

BIAN, the independent not-for-profit standards association, is announcing that 27 new organisations have joined since the beginning of 2024. This brings the total number of members to 120.

New members include CreditOne Bank, ANZ Bank, National Australia Bank, Banco Pichinchaa, 10x, Fiserv, TDECU Credit Union, 2innovate, SAP Fioneer, Luxoft, Backbase, Bantrab Financial Group, tietoevry, Advanzia, GIM-UEMOA, R34DY, ArcOne, Keppri, Zendicoded, Midships, ABSA Bank, Nucleus Software, Kyndryl, MuleSoft, Samlink, BSV and Sirus Technologies.

Over the last 12 months, BIAN has continued to receive significant interest from global banks looking to transform their offering, while embarking on their digital transformation journey, and developing a better understanding of their own business. This reflects the fact that 90% of banks are investing in digital transformation initiatives, with global spending expected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025.

The collaborative and open nature of BIAN’s organisation has also attracted technology vendors, driving to improve the interoperability of their solutions, and componentize in their current offerings.

Commenting on this growth, Hans Tesselaar, Executive Director of BIAN, said: “It’s incredibly exciting to see this growth and interest in our organisation. Over the last 16 years, we have proven that through greater collaboration we can drive the change needed to transform our industry for the better. We look forward to welcoming our new members and benefitting from their expertise and guidance.”

Following this period of momentum, Tracy Kerrins, Head of Enterprise Generative AI, CIO, Consumer Technology Wells Fargo & Company and Al Karim Somji, the co-founder of Zafin, a leading financial technology company specialising in core modernisation and business transformation solutions, have been appointed to the Board following BIAN’s General Assembly in September. In this role, they will provide strategic direction to help BIAN, its members and the industry to reach its goals.

At Wells Fargo, Tracy is focused on responsibly scaling AI and GenAI capabilities to employees and customers. She’s also reinventing the customer experience and propelling the technology modernization effort for Wells Fargo’s Auto, Credit Card, Payments, Home Lending, and Small Business units. This year, Tracy and her team have been instrumental in driving the fourth iteration of BIAN’s Coreless Banking concept, learning from the bank’s AI and machine learning experiences. American Banker once again recognized Tracy on its Most Powerful Women in Banking list in 2024.

Al Karim Somji is a seasoned entrepreneur and is currently a shareholder and board member at Zafin, an organisation he co-founded in 2002. As one of the co-founders, Somji was pivotal in shaping Zafin’s success, leaving a legacy of excellence and innovation. Under Somji’s leadership, Zafin became a frontrunner in core modernisation within the global banking technology industry, making contributions to BIAN since joining in 2015. As a key advocate of BIAN’s standards, Zafin has led the way in simplifying the adoption and integration of these standards across its platform.

Commenting on his appointment, Somji said, “Joining the BIAN board is an honour. I believe that banking is an essential service ready for disruption. As I transition into this next phase, I am committed to working with fellow BIAN board members and member banks to facilitate the creation of standards-based open-source platforms that will enable core modernisation within the industry.”

BIAN is hosting its BIAN Banking Summit, on Nov 19-20, in London to welcome its existing and new members, and celebrate its ongoing success. For more information, and to join next year visit: https://bian.org/participate/upcoming-events/