PowerDev have been developing and supporting an Australian bank’s Migrant Banking System for 9 years. The system records details of UK nationals who are in the process of, or have already embarked on, permanent or temporary moves to Australia and New Zealand. This aids the bank and it’s customers in setting up bank accounts in Australia and New Zealand and transferral of funds from UK banks to their foreign bank accounts. The system is used daily by up to thirty users, and processes front and back office functions for the bank.

The system has been developed with an MS Access 2010 front-end, with data held in MS SQL Server 2008, and runs on the bank’s London network. As a result of the global recession concerns over the security of individuals’ savings held within bank accounts has come under increased scrutiny. As a result PowerDev were asked in late 2013/early 2014 to develop an output for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which gives individuals’ bank balances and their compensatable amounts in the unlikely event that the bank should fail. This involves merging a feed from the bank’s MIDAS accounts system based in Sydney with the information stored in the Migrant Banking System in London, and extracting information in MS Excel for processing by the FSCS. PowerDev are currently working with the bank and the FSCS to ensure that the data conforms to strict FSCS guidelines.