Industry Banking and financial services Company Founded in 1935, the United Overseas Bank registered almost S$5 billion (US$3.1 billion) in its fiscal year 2005, ended Dec. 31. Employees 18,816 IT staff 874 Annual IT Budget Confidential

In fact, UOB's goal is to become a premier bank in the Asia-Pacific region, and it aims to have its business dealings outside of Singapore contribute 40 percent of the bank's total profit by 2010.

Last year, after 12 months of careful planning and deployment, it successfully integrated the IT platforms, processes and policies of two of its Thai subsidiaries--Bank of Asia and UOB Radanasin.

Susan Hwee, Singapore-based executive vice president of IT at UOB, said: "Our strengths have always been in our speed of delivery and the way we integrate our systems, to ensure our customers and service delivery are central to the design of all [IT] implementations. She added that the bank has put in place "a flexible and modular" IT architecture.

With plans to grow its presence in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand over the next two years, UOB will be steering its IT plans to prepare its Thai office to be Basel compliant by 2007.

The bank will also be looking to integrate and consolidate the treasury and credit card systems for its Indonesian subsidiaries. Over at its Malaysian office, the focus will be to beef up its system to support more aggressive growth in the consumer space.

UOB's headquarters in Singapore will continue to support initiatives to strengthen its local market footprint, and roll out tested business models for the region.

Hwee said: "The ultimate goal is to build a scalable regional infrastructure [capable of operating] as a shared service [platform].

The bank recognizes that technology has an important place in the bank's corporate strategy, and believes IT can not only help create value for its customers, it can also improve operational efficiency.

UOB believes having a strong IT foundation is vital for the bank's future expansion in Singapore and overseas, where an appropriate balance between strategic infrastructure investment and cost management will enable the company to remain competitive.

Hwee said: "To be recognized as one of Asia's best users of IT… is a testimony of our capabilities and the bank's commitment to strategize its investments in areas that will create value and growth."