International Business Machines will establish an excellence center of banking in Beijing, one of seven in the world, to serve domestic banks, the Big Blue said yesterday.

The Worldwide Banking Center of Excellence for China will support China's banking clients and address issues in core banking systems and payments, IBM said.

"Chinese banks face great opportunities and challenges and it's time for them to modernize," said Ian Hurst, IBM's General Manager of Global Financial Services Sector.

IBM's new center will help domestic banks face increased competition, strict regulations and overseas merge and acquisition risks, IBM said.

IBM's center will be staffed with an international team of banking experts and leverage assets and infrastructures to develop local banking value-added offerings, form strategies for payment and core system-renovation, and improve performance and scalability of the existing architecture.

Banks will seek diversified business income while credit and debit card-related solutions will become the fastest-growing segment of China's banking IT services market, said International Data Corp, a United States-based IT research firm.

Chinese banks hold three positions on the list of the world's top 10 banks.

Led by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation's biggest lender, domestic banks are expanding into overseas markets and penetrating various retail bank businesses, industry insiders said.

(Shanghai Daily July 29, 2008)