Building on BIAN: Microsoft’s banking architecture

June 15, 2012
Publication: Banking Technology

Microsoft has released a technology reference architecture based on its platform and services to help financial institutions reduce costs and drive growth.

“We’re providing a reference architecture that can help financial institutions rationalise banking services, which can then be consumed by other areas of the financial institution as needed,”said Joseph Pagano, Microsoft’s managing director for worldwide banking and capital markets. “Such repeatability and modularity removes redundancy and, as a result, MIRA-B was designed to lower costs, enable faster delivery of products to market, reduce operational risk and improve the ability to listen to customers.”

MIRA-B — Microsoft Industry Reference Architecture for Banking — was developed on an industry standard defined by the Banking Industry Architecture Network which develops architecture models to reduce integration complexity and align business and IT. IBM has recently joined the effort which also includes 11 leading banks and financial technology vendors.

MIRA-B consists of a series of ideas, best practice and frameworks designed to help customers break down their business process, data and application silos to deliver IT services more effectively with Microsoft technology, said Pagano, adding that the approach tries to be technology agnostic.

Pagano said the initiative will help banks address the cost pressures they face. Recent reports by McKinsey and Gartner noted that banks’ return on equity is 11% and dropping to 7%, while the costs of capital are 9%.

“The business model doesn’t work if you are going to lose money. We looked at our value-add in the industry, and we have a lot of solutions that can manage some of this. We have a story on cost and efficiency and can create an environment where customers can innovate quickly”he said.

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