NewTech Friday: Bankdata - indispensable IT solutions for society

Claus Hjort Bjerre, Development Director at Bankdata, had a talk with Efma’s Boris Plantier about how the company has come a long way from the 60’s to present day where they are building the future of digital banking.

What led to the creation of Bankdata?

Founded in 1966, Bankdata began as a joint venture between several Danish banks. Initially, Bankdata was a central hub for accounting and interest calculation and had the objective of making accounting more efficient for the financial institutions – who are still our customers and proprietors. Director Arne Birkholm and four others was the original cast, but that would change rapidly as few anticipated the impact of digitalization. Bankdata has since grown to employ 750 people who develop and maintain IT for approximately 250 milllion euros annually – making it one of the largest financial software developers in Denmark.

Could you present Bankdata’s offer?

Bankdata is a modern financial IT company offering relevant and trustworthy IT solutions to our eight member banks. We develop everything from mobile and online banking to credit systems – IT solutions that are indispensable to society and the people who use it every day. Our core systems form the very backbone and motor of our member banks’ businesses, thus reliability, compliance, and security is our permission to play.

What’s coming next for Bankdata?

We have a range of exciting initiatives in the pipeline, so I cannot mention them all. One of our main targets is to put more services into the hands of the customers and give them the opportunity to explore his or her financial options independently. Further, we are enabling open banking to integrate third party solutions into our work, which is crucial if we are to succeed in remaking the banking platform into an effective digital marketplace. Thirdly, we seek a transition from mostly on-premise solutions to services in the cloud in a hybrid setup. Cloud is the future and the underlying technology has improved over the years – especially in terms of security.