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Kindle Banking Systems

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Kindle Banking Systems was a banking solutions company that originated from a bespoke banking systems project in 1979 for the merchant bank, Ansbacher Bank in Ireland. The system originally ran on the ICL hardware platform - the relationship with the UK-based computer manufacturer facilitated Kindle establishing a significant customer base in Asia and Africa.

Kindle's main product was a modular UNIX-based banking solution known as Bankmaster. According to the RBS Market Report, by 1987 there were 170 sites operating Bankmaster worldwide. Standard Chartered Bank was the largest user of Bankmaster - the company formed a spin-off joint venture with Kindle specifically to support its own deployments. State Bank of India deployed the branch platform, Branchpower to to 2000 branches throughout India. The system allowed branches to operate in an off-line mode - this made it popular with retail banks in countries where the communications infrastructure was poor. The Bank of England and eight other central banks (mainly in Africa) used the treasury modules of Bankmaster.

In 1991, Kindle was acquired by a rival company; ACT, and was renamed as ACT Kindle. ACT was subsequently acquired by Misys in 1995 - the Kindle brand was retained until 2001 at which point it was subsumed into the Misys branding. During the later part of the 1990s sales of Bankmaster declined - whilst the Bankmaster solution set was considered to be functionally rich, the core technology had been allowed to become obsolete.

Between 1994 and 2000 the company made a significant investment in developing a new generation retail banking system, called Bankmaster-RS. It was developed in cooperation with the Colombian bank Coomeva. Bankmaster-RS struggled to deliver the planned functionality and was never as widely adoped as its predecessor.

Kindle is regarded as a company of note, as it was the first high-tech Irish company which achieved the status of world leader in its field.

References

IBS Publications Retail Banking Systems Market Report, 2010 <[1]> Bobsguide <[2]>

  • Kindle Banking Systems Alumni Group on Linkedin [3]
  • Stephen Edward Walsh research masters focused on the impact of the Internet on the relationship between Banking Solution Providers and Banks. Primary research was done in Kindle Banking Systems [4]
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