Delivering Data Visibility to VisionFund in Asia Pacific

Global microfinance network VisionFund International (VFI) supports their clients in Asia by helping to pioneer innovative digital solutions and microfinance for areas affected by conflict. And with over 300,000 active borrowers and 148 branches across six countries, their operation is growing – but they needed help to consolidate and gain operational control over multinational financial data.

VFI turned to BankBI for help, and thanks to our integration with award-winning digitalisation partner Musoni and our experience in serving banks and credit unions worldwide, it was a challenge we could overcome.

Our timeline to success graphic details the process we undertake, from gaining an understanding of the scope of the challenge, through to implementation. All of this is achieved with a focus on accuracy and speed to result, aiming to give the client visibility as soon as possible. 

The Challenge

VFI needed help as they struggled with a variety of challenges.

• 19 core banking systems
• 18 general ledgers
• 30 countries
• Paper-based processes
• Slow reporting
• No single view of data

With all of these issues facing them, they knew they needed to consolidate their data in order to achieve greater visibility. To make informed decisions, they needed to change at a systemic level.

“Our need was to have the bigger picture at a grassroots level but also dig down to understand our client base as individuals.”

Tom Allen, VFI Global
Director of Change & Programmes

Unfortunately, VisionFund’s visibility over its data was low. Many of the datasets they needed access to were in remote locations across the network in 19 different core banking systems and 18 different general ledgers. Many processes were still paper-based, and management was only receiving reports every six weeks or so. Something needed to be done to make the entire system more efficient and unify it under one solution.

To change this, VisionFund engaged in a multi-year transformation programme to standardise core banking and financial system platforms across 30 countries, including Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

But the issue facing VisionFund was deeper than just data management, and after reaching out to the ‘obvious’ vendors, they realised their size meant that too formulaic an approach wouldn’t work. With their unique requirements, nothing would happen in the short term by working with a standard vendor.

“It was about being able to address the bigger issue of reorganisation – finding a vendor to help us change the way we work. We knew that we had the data, that it was untapped and that if we could harness it then we would stand a better chance of delivering on our strategy.”

Tom Allen, VFI Global
Director of Change & Programmes

BankBI

Our core value proposition was a perfect fit. BankBI could provide the visibility VisionFund so desperately needed, but it could also act as a bridge to provide value while reporting solutions are deployed in different regions. BankBI specialises in providing bespoke solutions for financial institutions of any size.

So what was the plan? Initially, VisionFund wanted to install BankBI within each of the 30-plus MFIs in line with the transformation programme and where this has already been completed, BankBI has given VisionFund a level of control they’d never thought possible. However, waiting for the rollout of the core systems meant that VisionFund would need to wait too long for the analytics visibility it wanted.

The short term solution has been a ‘fast track’ option, where MFIs can upload their loan portfolios directly to BankBI in Microsoft Azure. By doing so, the process has already been streamlined into something readily achievable. Thanks to this, the corporate level was able to achieve a priority level of visibility, allowing them to make decisions about global lending limits while monitoring at risk portfolio.

“BankBI complements the reporting capability of Musoni and allows executive management to get the data and insights they need without needing to directly access the core banking system.”

Tim Tempany, VFI Global
Program Director of VFM