Information systems of Bancaja

Index
What is BANCAJA?.3
Where BANCAJA operates?....4
Resources Employed 6
Information Systems 7
Internet .9
Intranet ...10
Phone calls .13
Physical mail...13
Fax...14
BANCORREO....14
Meetings..14
TL4..15
References...16
Information Systems of BANCAJA
What is BANCAJA?
BANCAJA is a non−profit financial organization that combines the social spirit of savings organizations with
the management criteria of commercial banks.
Its fullname is Caja de Ahorros de Valencia, Castellón y Alicante (the saving Bank of Valencia, Castellon and
Alicante). It's a financial organization that has been part of the history of the Valencian Community for over a
century and a half, an organization which has always made and continues to make a significant and growing
contribution to both the economic and social development of the region.
BANCAJA's aims, amongst the others is:
• To facilitate the formation and capitalization of savings.
• To administer the resources that it is entrusted with and make these productive.
• To provide a full range of financial services to meet its customers' requirements.
• To make productive investments that contribute to the increase of wealth and economic development
in its region of activity.
• To promote social activities that contribute to improving the quality of life and assist cultural and
social progress in its operating region.
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Four Competitive advantages help maintain BANCAJA's leadership within its area of activity:
• Its expensive commercial presence, including a complete network of service points.
• An important body of two million customers.
• Its highly qualified professional staff and the advanced technological level of its operating equipment.
• The organization business strategy, which has clear objectives, and embraces different approaches to
the different marketplaces.
The BANCAJA group is made up of:
• The Caja de Ahorros de Valencia, Castellón y Alicante, BANCAJA, The result of the merger of four
Valencian savings banks together with Sindibank.
• Holdings in the Bank of Murcia and the Bank of Valencia, both of regional character.
• Its operating companies, which are engaged in financial broking insurance, travel, operating services,
valuation, repossession and property activities.
Majors Holdings of BANCAJA:
* Banks
♦ Banco de Valencia 37'88%
♦ Banco de Murcia 100%
* Insurance
♦ Aseval 100%
♦ Coseval 100%
♦ Segurval 100%
♦ Coseval II 100%
♦ Consultora de Pensiones 100%
* Financial
♦ Gebasa 100%
♦ Bancaja International Capital 100%
♦ Bancaja Eurocapital Finance 100%
* Property
♦ Cisa 100%
♦ Actura 100%
* Investment
♦ S.B.B. Participaciones 100%
♦ Valenciana de Inversiones Mobiliarias 100%
♦ Vainmosa cartera 17'58%
♦ Ribera Salud 33%
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♦ Cegas 9%
♦ Terra Mítica 11'89%
♦ Aguas de Valencia 2,33%
♦ Aumar 1,89%
* Services
♦ S.B. Activos 51%
♦ Mercavalor 16,67%
♦ Servicio telefónico G.B. AIE 95'14%
♦ Grupo de Bancaja Centro de Estudios 100%
♦ Cavaltour 50%
♦ Agro−Caja Sagunto 100%
♦ Key 34'99%
♦ Acinsa 22'42
In terms of turnover BANCAJA is the largest financial organization in the Valencian Community, the fourth
largest saving bank in Spain and the core of a corporate group with great development potential that is
currently one of the country's ten largest financial organizations.
Where does BANCAJA operate?
• Territory
The geographical setting for a people four million strong, known as the Valencian Community, is mid−way
along the Spanish Mediterranean coast. This land of mountains and beaches, large inland valleys and coastal
market gardens covers an area of 23.000 square kilometres.
The Valencian Community has large urban centres, surrounded by counties of diverse economic activity.
Large towns and high population density 171 inhabitants per square kilometre− give this land a characteristic
liveliness. BANCAJA is also present in others parts of Spain, and particularly, for reasons stemming freom
the comtemporary history, in the region of Albacete, which belongs to the Castilla−La Mancha Autonomous
Community.
BANCAJA has an extensive network of offices throughout the Valencian Community and Albacete, where it
has a position of clear leadership. It also has offices in large towns in nine other autonomous regions that play
a strategic part within the organization.
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• Customers
BANCAJA tries to satisfy the demand for the financial products and services of the most diverse social
elements in its region of activity:
• Households and individuals.
• The medium and high−income bracket.
• SMES (small and medium sized business) and shops.
• Public and privates institutions.
Quality of service is a basic premise in the business strategy established by BANCAJA, for whom the
customer is the key to success.
• Foreign Markets
• Loans are issued on European markets through subsidiary companies.
• Co−operation agreements on technology, sales strategy and charity projects with a variety of
organizations in Europe and America.
• BANCAJA was the first Spanish savings bank to be authorized to operate in the United States, which
it now does through its branch in Miami, Florida.
Resources Employed
A great staff.
BANCAJA has 4.400 professionals looking after its wide−ranging and varied network of service points.
First−class computer equipment.
BANCAJA has extensive and effective computer equipment, with applications specially designed for
financial entities. The computer centre also handles the Bank of Murcia's operations. The central system is
based on a IBM S/930 system and other equipment.
Connected to these computers are:
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• More than 3500 teleprocessing terminals.
• 1300 personal computers with a local intercommunication links.
Information Systems of BANCAJA
BANCAJA is an organization with many departments. BANCAJA controls a lot of kind of firms too. So it's
like a big firm with different goals. To run the firm and get all those goals, BANCAJA has to control and
distribute the flow of information.
In BANCAJA, we can find a lot of ways of communication, between the different levels. There are several
employees in BANCAJA who works far away from the others and they need the information quickly to be
efficient.
• Structure: The Managing structure of BANCAJA is a hierarchical structure; all the employees are subjected
to their manager, and also the manager is subjected to another. That can cause problems of communication.
When the employees need an approval from their manager or from other partner, they have to wait for it.
BANCAJA has tried to solve it with the horizontal lines, with phone calls, or intranet.
• Technology adaptation: In the last years, BANCAJA´s policy has been pointed to renew the staff, to
change, to prepare the new staff to be able to work. It has brought BANCAJA to go a higher position
because the problem to adapt the staff to the new technologies has been quicker. The reason of this better
adaptation has been that younger people are more prepared to the new technologies.
• Security in the Information Systems: `most every financial institution across the country − and probably
throughout the world − has a detailed plan for what to do in case of an in−person robbery. However, fewer
than 2% of financial institutions worldwide have developed an internal security policy that specifies the
steps employees should take when suspicious activity is detected with regard to the institution's computer
systems.
The fact is, there is a limited number of people who have the capability to rob a financial institution in person.
However, there are potentially millions of people who have the capability to cause mischief by computer.
Over 80% of the threat to an institution's systems comes from its own employees: current, former and
contract. No system is completely safe. As has always been the case, security technology and criminals are in
a never−ending race, each trying to outsmart the other.
BANCAJA has dedicated a lot of money to reduce the possibilities of risk of a hacker robbery, but it's
impossible to eliminate all the risks.
Also, BANCAJA has made structure changes in the buildings to reduce the possibilities of the physical
robberies. For example: every employee who uses money works behind a glass window between the worker
and the clients. Also BANCAJA has changed the places of the safety boxes, which were close to the walls
because there were a lot of robberies in Spain that thieves used to crash a car against the wall, breaking the
safety box and stealing the money.
To make this changes, BANCAJA hasn't waited the robbery happens, BANCAJA has investigated to find the
most efficient plan. An internal security plan should address at least four issues:
• Risk identification−knowing your systems well enough to know where its weaknesses are,
• Break−in prevention−developing a strategy for addressing your systems' weaknesses and "plugging
the holes,"
• Break−in recognition−being able to tell when a breach has occurred, and
• Damage control−minimizing the damage in the event of a breach or disruption.
Most importantly, the plan should name one person as the plan's administrator−one person who is ultimately
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responsible for the system and its safety. It is important that only one person act as administrator for two main
reasons: first, if a crisis should occur, one person should have the authority to act immediately without having
to call a committee together or wait for approval from someone else; second, one person should be ultimately
responsible for clearing employees for various levels of security. If too many people make security clearance
decisions, then the security of the entire system is jeopardized.
Finally, the plan should rely on the expertise and experience of your employees for success. You may have
hardware and software in place to help monitor security, but it is ultimately the employees who use the system
that know where its weaknesses are.
• Ways of Information: BANCAJA has made a completed net of communication about all the workers. Inside
of it we can find:
• Internet
• Intranet
• Phone calls
• Physical mail
• Fax
• Bancorreo (Bane−mail)
• Meetings
• Its own information program called TL4
Internet
Every worker has for his disposition a computer connected to the net. Workers use it to find every kind of
information to help us to work more efficiently.
The main utility of Internet is the relationship we can find between BANCAJA with clients and BANCAJA
with suppliers. That relationship is built with a solid communication. BANCAJA has put, at the disposal of
clients and suppliers, every type of information that they need. They can observe and operate with their
accounts and they can do every kind of transactions on them. BANCAJA give a Digital PIN (digital personal
identify number), to authorize clients or suppliers to operate with the accounts.
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Also they can establish a communication with the Bank, using the e−mailbox, but they'd better to use instant
messages, to create an intranet net communication.
All that information has to be safe. We have to emphasize in the security again. We can distinguish
Confidentiality and Security.
• Security. Security is to be able to put your money in the bank, and keep it safe, as well physically as in
Internet. Also it's important to keep the bank operation system safe, avoiding anybody can make mischief in
the accounts or in the system. Internet has opened a big door to the hackers to operate widely and with all
kind of freedom. BANCAJA, (like the others banks), has spend a lot of money to find the best way to keep
the money safe. (For example: A few years ago, Citybank suffered three important robberies of millions of
dollars.)
• Confidentiality. Not only the money is important. There is a lot of information about the clients and about
the own firm that has to be filed without risk. (Addresses, accounts, private files). Directly connected with
the flow of information is the matter of privacy: the growth of information technology and the increase of
information in decision making are today more than in the past forces that threaten the privacy of the
costumers. LORTAT (Ley de Ordenacion de Datos de Caracter Personal= Personal Character Data
Ordination Law) is the law that regulates the privacy rights.
To find that security and confidentiality a lot of firms have changed their information systems, they have
changed to an intranet net communication.
Intranet
An important reason to put Intranet in BANCAJA is the reduction of the costs. Also it's very important to save
time, and time is money. Employees spend a lot of time answering routinely asked questions. The solution to
solve this problem is to put the information on an Intranet. Not only to put it out there, refer all your callers to
your Intranet. For example: Before your travel office answers the phone play a short recorded message saying
"For routine questions check our pages on the company Intranet at www..... ."
The one problem with using email is that the entire message is usually not conveyed in the first
communication. One email usually starts a string of emails back and forth until the other part completely
understands your request or message. Instead consider putting forms on your Intranet.
Intranet has been a very good advance, and it has been accepted very well. It has caused a big reduction in the
information costs of teamwork and hence makes it a more efficient solution to the organizational design
problem. With intranet you can send every kind instant message (internal e−mail).
Also it's possible to left messages in accounts. That's very useful, because that message appears everywhere
the client is. For example: If there is a person who has been several times a slow paying client, It's possible to
put a message announcing to be careful with him (or refusing to give money to him). If the client use his
notebook (Its like the credit card. The difference is that the movements are written in the notebook) or his
card, the message will appear in the computer.
Although Intranet has increased the flow of information, a big problem has appeared. The flow of information
has been so overloaded that people can't attend to all of it. To solve this problem, the employees use to make
phone calls for the most important.
It exists a workgroup, who sends to the appropriate employees, everyday, some messages about the changes
of the market, or the changes of the environment. Every BANCAJA worker use to receive some documents
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like the following:
• Commercial Documents: Those documents use to orient the employees to work efficiently, (what to
do?)
♦ Marketing plan: Every year a marketing plan is created to instruct the employees how to sell
the products. Here, the employees can find the marketing goals.
♦ Products and Prices: Here, the employees can find all the changes about the different
products (loan, fixed rate investments, variable rate investments) and prices (%, formalization
costs, initiation costs).
♦ Negotiation tools: Every client, depending his likes, dislikes, money, investments has a
preferences. When the client goes to the bank, the employee knows all of those preferences
because he receives short messages about the client. For example: An old man who has a lot
of money in a account. Our employee should advice him to do an investment.
♦ Market Tendencies: The bank advises the employees what they used to do, or to advise to the
clients, about the changes of the market.
♦ Competition Informs: They talk about the results of the different bank competitors: their
changes, their innovations.
♦ Commercial Planning Manual: It's a complete guide that explains how to act, to convince the
clients, and the best way to do it.
• Operative Documents: After the negotiation, we have to know how to carry out the formalization of
the contracts. (How to it?)
♦ General Communications: Here, the employee can find all kind of information about the
computer operation system.
♦ Procedure Manual and Codes Manual: They are two big and complete guides that explains
how to create the product in the operate system, and to save the operation in the computer
files. There is a guide to solve the easier problems too.
♦ Products and Services Prices: Here, we can find the news and how to consult and how to
operate with the bank products and bank services.
♦ Support Office: There is a workgroup whose mission is to help and solve the more
complicated branch problems.
♦ General help: That kind of messages tries to help in the following cases: 1.rates informs.
2.fraud informs, (For example: If there are some thieves and they have stolen with success
some banks, an internal message is sent to every branch who is situated in that region. 3.
Signs. (Digital signs). 4.Operation Guide changes. 5. All about foreign money and their
changes. 6. Fiscal Information. 7. Solidarity accounts 8. New computing versions. 9.Offices
and Automatic Teller Machines nets. 10. Offices Platform. 11. Peripherals.
• Negotiation reports: Those reports talk about the present and the future economic situation.
♦ Annual Memory: Those documents contain documents about the Accounting (Balance,
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Financial Statement), and the economic situation of the firm.
♦ Firms Rates and Services Level Indicators: They are very useful to compare with the other
branches results. There are a lo t of kind of indicators: Human Resources, Juridical Services,
Marketing and Commercial Management, Alternatives Ways Management, Real Exterior
Business Management, Technical Resources Management, and Control and Financial
Management Indicators.
♦ Technical Area Projects and CIN: Centro de Información Contable= Account Information
Center: They are development centers that try to find a better way to minimize the costs and
maximize the profit.
• Communications
♦ First Page: It's a summary with the most important news of BANCAJA.
♦ News Summary: It's a summary about the most important economic news.
♦ Monthly Magazine and Interviews: More complementary information about the most
important event that happens in the firm.
• Service Petitions
♦ How to consult and to do Central services petitions.
♦ Central services Petitions Statistics.
• Process
♦ Opening and Closing Offices. Summary of the new offices, and changes.
♦ Offices Specialization. Made for the firms.
♦ Buildings Promoter Division. Made for the promoter clients.
♦ Personal Bank Division. Made for the high income clients
♦ Commercial Bank Division. The rest of the clients.
• Human Resources
♦ Formation Center. BANCAJA makes Courses and Guides to the young people who want to
work in BANCAJA. Also BANCAJA has Formation Offers and Professional Ways.
♦ Evaluation Center. This center evaluates if all kind of goals have been kept and how they
have been done.
♦ Personal Data Consulting. Here, every worker can find all the information about his partners.
(Workplace, permissions). Also there is some information about the Medical Services, a
behaviour guide
Phone calls
Every worker has his own telephone. There is a internal line to talk with the partners of the same branch.
There are more two or three telephone numbers in each office (Manager phone number, Employees phone
number, general phone number).
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Physical mail
The physical mail is only used in specific situations. Most of the activities, that mail was used, have been
changed to the BANCORREO (BANE−MAIL). Here there are some examples of its utility. At the last page
we can find a picture of the physical mail structure. (page n.16
• Income: Everyone who wants to put money into an account belonging to another person will get a
receipt. The income will be registered in the computer and another receipt will go to the owner
mailbox by the physical mail. The bank use to do it with the wedding accounts, school accounts etc
• Credit: The bank only uses the physical mail when the client is from a different branch and he
complains to his branch office that he hasn't made that credit. Example: client who lives in Algemesi
and has his account in the 111.branch from Algemesi. He went to Pedreguer to visit some friends and
he went to the bank and he took money from the 289.branch, in Pedreguer. He came back and a few
days after, he looked his movements and he didn't remember to do that credit. He went to complain to
the 111.branch in Algemesi. The employee can watch that he did that credit, but if he can prove it, he
has to ask for the original paper (signed by the client), which is in Pedreguer. Then, the employee will
have to use the physical mail.
• Banker's order or bank transference: It's like incomes, but the last receipt is sent to the other bank,
not to the owner of the account (because the owner of the account is not a BANCAJA client).
• To increase or decrease the rights and duties: A long years ago the only place where you can change
your rights and duties it was in the branch that you had been registered. But that has been changed.
You can change it in every branch of the bank, but after the bank has to send the sign to the branch
where the client pertain to be filed. For example: if a client wants his girlfriend to take money from
his account, he can make the order in every branch.
• Loan: That case is more complicated. The highest position of the branch has to enough qualified to
make loan. If the employee can't make loans or big loans, it will be more costly. The employee has
sent it to the manager; the manager has to approve it. Finally the manager will send it again to the
original branch.
• Cheques, letters of change, promissory notes A that kind of paper money has to be approbated by the
client branch. First of all, the employee has to receive the phone call approbation, after he has to send
the original paper (by physical mail) to the client branch to be filed.
• Investments (and bonds): All kind of investments uses the same process like loans.
Fax
Every office has a fax. The most important function of the fax is the possibility to send a copy of the cheques
to receive the approval from the manager. This only happens if the cheque hasn't been truncated (more than 10
millions de ptas. 556000 Swedish Kronor aprox.)
BANCORREO (BANE−MAIL)
It's the substitute of the mailbox; it's an internal and instant mail. Every time is more used by the BANCAJA
workers.
Meetings
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There are: annual meetings (Everybody has to turn up), trimester meetings (Every manager has to turn up),
monthly meetings (Manager with the Negotiation Unit), and weekly meetings (Manager with his workers).
Its own information program called TL4
TL4 is a complete operation system that permits to carry out all the bank functions. Every short period of time
(every week) there are new changes, to try to do a more perfect system. Those changes are not big, to avoid
the confusion of the employees.
Every operation is made in the computer is filed in a memory daily. It's also filed, every thing about who has
made it, when, where, and the results .All the computers are connected and it's possible to get all kind of
information of every client.
To end our work, we would like to show a picture gallery and the Central Bank, both are situated in Valencia.
The first picture is an important building in Valencia, where BANCAJA assign part of its money to make
social works. The second picture is a night view of the Central Bank of BANCAJA in Valencia.
References:
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From the staff of the bank:
Documents and information
From the literature:
• Information System and the Organization of Modern Enterprise, Brynjolfsson and Mendelson
• Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age, Richard O. Mason
• Employee−propelled information provision, Carl−Johan Petri
From the Internet:
• www.bancaja.es
• www.bankinfo.com
• www.competia.com
:
:
Branches send the information to their central operator, which distribute it to the final destination's central
operator. Finally, the information is delivered to the final destination. BANCAJA
Linköping Universitet
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Information Systems
PERSONAL MAIL
BRANCH A
BRANCH B
BRANCH C
VALENCIA
ALICANTE
VALENCIA
ALICANTE
CASTELLON
CASTELLON
BRANCH E
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BRANCH D
NACIONAL &
INTERNATIONAL
NACIONAL &
INTERNATIONAL
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