First Bank to Close 700 Branches for Software Upgrade

First Bank of Nigeria Plc which prides itself as the Nigeria’s bank of first choice is to shut down its 700 branches nationwide from Thursday (tomorrow) to Monday next week to enable it upgrade its core banking application from Finacle 7 to Finacle 10.

Customers of the bank during the period would therefore find it difficult to carry out some banking transactions due to the migration.

Finacle 10, a core banking application is an improvement of Finacle 7 and comes with more robust and secure platform.

The bank said that “all transactions that will impact on the banking platform that is settlements, interbank (RTGS, NEFT, FIP) inflows, will not be available.”

Mr. Bisi Onasanya, group managing director, First Bank, said in an open letter to the customers, “I write to thank you for your continuous patronage and inform you of our plan to upgrade our core banking application as part of the ongoing transformation of the bank.

“I am particularly excited at the prospect of this milestone as it represents the opportunity to significantly transform our service delivery to you in many respects, while also supporting our plans for the introduction of new and innovative products as we anticipate your every banking need.

“This is a major project and on account of the technical requirements, we regret that there will be some disruptions to our services for about three days, while the upgrade is ongoing.”

Onasanya said only intra-bank transactions would be available on the alternative channels while the upgrade was going on.

He added that the clearing of customers’ might also be slightly delayed but that all investments due on any transaction within the period would only be terminated when all services were restored without affecting the value dates or the value of accrued interests on such investments.
Finacle 10 simplifies end-user interfaces; support the latest database technologies; and improve functional and operational capabilities.

The platform also drive multi-entity operations as it is capable of supporting new lines of business, including wealth management, financial inclusion and Islamic banking.