Blog: National Bank of Pakistan selects IBM for Business Continuity Services

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has selected IBM (NYSE:IBM) for Business Continuity and Resiliency Services (BCRS) to ensure uninterrupted services and protection of crucial data in the event of a disruption. The new agreement enables the bank to meet the stringent resiliency requirements of the State Bank of Pakistan and reduce the need for split-second decision making during an emergency.

The National Bank of Pakistan is the largest commercial bank operating in the country. It recently redefined its role and has moved from a public sector organization into a modern commercial bank.

Similar to many institutions its size, NBP did not have the resources to maintain and manage a facility in another geographic location, so the company looked to IBM to consolidate its centralised servers from different locations around the country, to one centralised server.

"National Bank of Pakistan ITD took a landmark initiative in June 2011 to consolidate all the twelve regional centers into a centralized location. To mitigate the risks of having all the data in a centralised environment and to have proper disaster recovery and business continuity we selected IBM BCRS. We selected the vendor that has the relevant expertise and capability to provide business continuity services required by EBS" said Mr. Mahmood Siddiqui, CIO of NBP.

The IBM solution will equip NBP with an improved processing capability, enable the bank to run its core banking and payment solutions applications with a round the clock availability and allow the Bank to the meet challenges of any site issues through a disaster recovery setup. IBM will also ensure a highly available IT infrastructure as well as providing NBP a Disaster Recovery Site – as mandated by the State Bank of Pakistan.

Today’s marketplace is defined by intense competition, consolidation, globalization and increased government intervention all contributing to a more challenging environment for banks to operate.

IBM is driving the strategic use of technology inside banks like the NBP to gain real-time visibility of risk positions in order to more quickly and nimbly respond to changes in market conditions.

"Companies are increasingly turning to IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services to plan, implement and manage IT operational risk management strategies," said Adnan Siddiqui, Country Sales Manager, IBM Pakistan. "By helping reduce the impact of particular risks, IBM is helping to bring peace of mind to the National Bank of Pakistan and its customers."

The agreement was signed in the second quarter of 2011.

[via: Press Release]