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Core Systems

12:44 PM
Art Gillis
Art Gillis
Commentary
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How Bank Technology Has Changed in 20 Years

The reality of 1991 was not all that different from the state of core banking today.

Last week, as I was working on the 2011 Edition of Automation in Banking [my annual report on core banking technology software and the vendors that make it], I experienced a sort of "a funny thing happened on the way to the forum" moment. Buried in the archives was the 1991 Edition. There were older editions as well but I was intrigued by the 20-year span. So I took a little break to see what 1991 had to say, but first I took a sip of cheap red wine to prepare me for the shock. Past tech events haunt me, and this was my work, so I expected the worse. After all, I was in good company. Tom Watson said there would be five computers in the world. Ken Olsen invented the mini computer (PDP) but he did not believe in the personal computer. Bill Gates did not embrace the Internet. Dale Reistad predicted a cashless society in the sixties, but I still keep a Hamilton in my wallet just in case.

After reading the 152 pages of history, my thoughts turned to you. I felt you ought to see the 20-year advance in bank technology. Please be advised that I am not a visionary. Coward is a better label for me because I don't take chances. If it happened, I report it. So you can believe everything in the 1991 column. And I was so comfortable about the reality of 1991, that I never took a second sip, and that's the way it was.

Automation in Banking Report: 2011 vs. 1991
20111991
Price of the report$1,800$500
Pages600152
Number of bank outsource companies2071
Number of core bank software companies1942
Maximum number of automated applications in a bank184141
Number of popular brands of computers used for host processing39
Number of popular ATM brands36
Number of hand-picked tech solution vendors in this report70143
Jack Henry revenue (one of two companies in both editions)$837m$15.2m
Fiserv revenue (one of two companies in both editions)$4.13b$183m
Number of commercial banks7,73114,979
Number of credit unions7,50014,000
Vendor with the most outsourced deals in a yearFiservSystematics
Budgeted funds for IT - all FIs in the U.S.$75.7b$26b
Percent mix of processing method - Outs, IH, Manual49/51/056/42/2
Appreciation of stock, last 20 years - JKHY135 times
Appreciation of stock, last 20 years - FISV24 times

Vendor Executives Named in Both Reports
20111991
Coley Clark BancTec EDS
Frank Martire FIS CIR
Paul Danola FIS CIR
Randy Fluitt FIS EDS
Gary Norcross FIS Systematics
Joan Skimmons Fiserv CIR
Mike Young Fiserv ITI
Don Dillon Fiserv ITI
David Carden Fiserv ITI
James Sizemore Fiserv ITI
Raju Shivdasani HFS CIR
Jack Prim JHA B&S
Jerry Hall JHA JHA
Michael Henry JHA JHA
Kevin Marsh JHA Peerless
Stan Viner JHA JHA
Mike Cronin MBS MBS
John Decker MSI MSI
George Solomon NBS CBI
Charles Nicola NBS NBS

Vendor Abbreviation Key
Company NameAbbreviation
Broadway & SeymourB&S
Citicorp Information ResourcesCIR
Computer Bank, Inc.CBI
Jack Henry AssociatesJHA
Midwest Software, Inc.MSI
Modern Banking SystemsMBS
Nicola Banking SystemNBS

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