As technology evolves, organizations need to stay ahead of the curve. Entities such as LOLC Technologies are leading the march into the future, with novel technologies bringing about greater efficiencies. Amongst its latest innovations is FusionX, a core-banking platform developed in-house to help standardize and optimize the operations of the global LOLC Group.
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Due to its robust features, the platform has enabled LOLC to ensure a heightened sense of employee and customer satisfaction. In conversation with Arteculate, Deputy CEO of LOLC Technology Services Ltd, Prasanna Siriwardena remarked, “Today, the LOLC Group runs on FusionX. Since its inception 2.5 years ago, the core-banking platform expanded with features into segments such as banking, lending, leasing, and loans. We are grateful to those who initiated this endeavor and play a large role within the LOLC Financial Services section.”
The journey of FusionX
Initially, the LOLC Group utilized core-banking solutions from external vendors. However, as the company rapidly moved beyond the shores of its home in Sri Lanka, it became increasingly evident that it needed a more robust solution to keep up with its fast-growing needs. Hence, LOLC Technology Services took the lead and embarked on an effort to build a strong platform utilizing next-generation technologies. LOLC Technologies also undertook this task with a keen awareness that customer transactions were projected to grow exponentially and, as such, needed the capacity to serve customers at scale.
From the get-go, LOLC Technologies worked in close collaboration with Oracle. Through this partnership, they had a firm foundation with flexible architecture and strong infrastructure for the FusionX platform, which the LOLC Group could quickly deploy at scale. Ultimately, these efforts resulted in FusionX meeting and surpassing industry expectations of a core-banking solution while facilitating the fast-paced growth of the LOLC Group internationally.
The technology & its international impact
A critical need for a customized core-banking platform arose internally within the LOLC Group’s operations in Sri Lanka. But it soon proved itself as a powerful platform with its applicability to handling international use cases – a true testament to the strengths of the FusionX system. This strong capability was all by design and part of the original ambitious vision of LOLC Technology Services to create a customizable, cloud-native, and mobile-ready system that was easy to use no matter which side of the business or where in the world its users were.
As the group began implementing the FusionX platform, it was able to ensure customers enjoyed an impeccable user experience through time-saving self-onboarding and self-service capabilities. “Going one step ahead, FusionX is established on an open API concept that will allow us to work with smaller banking entities and thus serve customers better. We have also considered the use cases available for both B2B collaborations as well as a greater customer experience for all stakeholders”, reiterated Prasanna Siriwardena.
Currently, a Zambian enterprise of the group utilizing the FusionX platform can offer self-service banking solutions to its customers. Similarly, a Kenyan entity of the group is now undertaking a digital-first approach to banking, which allows its customers to access services 10 times faster than existing brick-and-mortar institutions in the region.
The way forward for FusionX
CISO of LOLC Holdings, Parakum Pathirana, remarked, “FusionX was engineered with first principles of design while keeping information security requirements from the very beginning. We have shifted from traditional DevOps to DevSecops, where information security is part of the product itself. We are utilizing a leading Web Application Firewall as the main line of defense while conducting automated vulnerability assessments daily. Further, we use other usual layered security mechanisms such as IPS/ IDS, File Integrity Monitoring (FIM), Extended Detection and Response (XDR), etc. FusionX is integrated into an industry-leading Cloud Security Posture Management and cloud workload protection solution to address cloud, application, data, and run-time security. FusionX is also designed to adhere to Zero Trust principles. We also launched a bug bounty program together with partner universities in addition to independent security reviews, which are conducted periodically”
The FusionX platform is fascinating because it is scalable and adaptive to seamlessly cater to various use cases of the LOLC Group’s local and international use cases. The platform is a strong showcase of LOLC Technologies and its expertise with a low code/no code approach to meet the needs of an evolving enterprise. Moreover, the secure, cloud-based, mobile-friendly platform means that institutions need not concern themselves with building and maintaining heavy infrastructure in-house. The benefits of the lower overheads, ease of onboarding for financial services, and the adaptability of the FusionX system place LOLC Technologies firmly at the forefront of innovation as they drive the continued fast-paced growth of the wider LOLC Group.
