Tue 18 - Thu 20 November 2008 - Frankfurt am Main, Exhibition Grounds, Hall 5.1
Positive signals for this year’s E.B.I.F.
Automated credit processes growing in importance
Broad spectrum of cutting edge IT solutions for banks and insurance companies
Wiesbaden, 17 August 2006 – There is already a great level of interest in this year’s European Banking & Insurance Fair (E.B.I.F.). This was announced earlier today by Thomas Schütz, Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt Ausstellungen GmbH.
The organisers of Europe’s technology trade fair for banks and insurance companies, which takes place in Frankfurt from 14 to 16 November 2006, have reported excellent feedback from IT and financial service providers. Among the extensive range of cutting-edge IT solutions, the automation of credit processes will play a key role, allowing banks to cut up to 50% of their costs.
“The sector is buzzing again. We can see this from the promising queries, applications and dialogue with IT providers, banks and insurance companies”, says Thomas Schütz. “This is primarily due to the new technologies and to the rapid pace at which the sector will develop. For financial service providers, a visit to the E.B.I.F. means above all that they can save time and money, secure new customers, increase the security of their operations and prepare for future challenges within the sector.”
A prime example is the automation of credit processes. According to a survey conducted by Frankfurt-based E-Finance Lab, SMEs in Germany that apply for a loan wait an average of 10.8 days for the money to be made available. However, the survey also states that banks plan to reduce the time required to process loans by an average of 4.5 days. This ambitious goal can only be achieved through the use of modern IT systems.
In the case of personal loans, a small number of financial service providers such as Citibank, Süd-West-Kreditbank and norisbank already use the internet to enable customers to apply for and be granted loans in a matter of minutes. It only takes a few days for the loan to be paid out, since many process steps – such as ascertaining creditworthiness – are automated. However, online loans only accounted for 1% or so of the €130 billion that made up the total volume of instalment credit in Germany in 2005. Enormous growth potential exists when suitable IT solutions are used.
In spite of recent calls by Michael Glos, Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, for simpler and faster credit options – particularly loans to SMEs – the process still takes weeks in some cases. Media conversion in particular wastes a lot of time, with data being inputted several times by different people. In extreme cases, advance financing for SMEs arrives too late owing to long-winded processing procedures.
“There is enormous potential for savings in the automation of credit processes”, says Jan P. Wieners, an expert in automated credit and director of afb Application Services, one of the exhibitors at this year’s E.B.I.F. “The predominantly automated processing not only allows banks to reduce their overall costs by 50%, but also to make considerable time savings.”
More than 7,000 international users and decision-makers from financial and insurance institutions are expected, along with some 250 exhibitors, making this event Europe’s largest independent technology trade fair for the banking and insurance sector. This year the E.B.I.F. will once again be taking place within the framework of Euro Finance Week, the high-powered industry gathering of the European finance and insurance sectors in one of Europe’s most important financial centres. An additional attraction for exhibitors and visitors alike is the Sparkassen Informatik IT forum, which is held at the same time and in the immediate vicinity of the E.B.I.F.
9th EURO FINANCE WEEK 13 - 17 November 2006
E.B.I.F.-Trade Exhibition 14 - 16 November 2006
Concurrent with: IT-Forum 2006, Sparkassen Informatik 14 - 16 November 2006
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Press contact:
Michael Diegelmann / Henryk Deter
cometis AG
Unter den Eichen 7
65195 Wiesbaden, Germany
Tel +49 611 20 58 55-12/-13 Fax -66
diegelmann@cometis.de
deter@cometis.de
