AVENUE BANK refinement without immediate pressure . If COVID hadn ’ t happened , we might have relied on external consultants , leading to a knowledge void once they left .”
Avenue Bank established its cloudbased platform on AWS , a task Nicolas took on himself . “ This wasn ’ t something that I would have done on my own but due to the regulatory delays , it was about being as productive as possible . That ’ s what I love about startups , you do whatever is required . Once we had come out of the period of licence suspension , it meant we had an enterprise grade cloud platform from which we could build our technology on . As AWS is a consumptionbased service it meant we were able to keep those costs to a minimum by using the right sized infrastructure .
This hands-on approach allowed the team to control the process and make necessary adjustments as needed . Emphasising the importance of striking the right balance of building custom solutions and using off-the-shelf platforms , which may have limitations and hefty annual fees .
“ I ’ ve used some of those platforms and they can be quite constraining , they don ’ t necessarily let you do everything , and they ’ ve got expensive annual fees and you ’ re not necessarily getting value out of them until a few years down the line , but have spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars in the meantime ,” Nicolas adds .
“ You can build something straightforward and low-cost , and it ’ s effective until you reach the right scale .”
“ Our aim is to become the go-to bank for any business in need of a bank guarantee ”
NICOLAS PARFAIT CIO , AVENUE BANK
“ Tech is never permanent ,” he continues “ I always cringe whenever I hear someone say the phrase futureproof . You need to balance building what you need now whilst having some flexibility for the future , but you are never going to be able to cater for every conceivable scenario . We ’ ve built a modern , secure and scalable , best of breed technology platform which allows us to innovate and implement changes quickly . We ’ ve tried to strike a balance with solutions that are cost effective and work for us now , knowing that these may need to be replaced in the future .”
Regulatory hurdles and product development The selection of SAP Fioneer as Avenue Bank ’ s core banking provider was driven by its cloud offering , facilitating core banking operations as a managed service . This decision not only reduced internal resource requirements but also ensured compliance with regulatory standards . Nicolas underscores the enduring nature of this relationship , highlighting ongoing efforts to enhance collaboration and operational efficiency .
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