City Bank

City Bank

Industry: Banking & Financial Services
Region: Bangladesh

Overview

Founded in 1983 as Bangladesh’s first private commercial bank, City Bank PLC has grown into one of the country’s most prominent financial institutions, serving millions of individuals and businesses across a broad range of products.

As the bank scaled, its operations became heavily reliant on two third-party platforms — Finacle and Ababil — handling everything from treasury bonds and loan approvals to account management and card processing. The core issue was cost: both platforms charged per user, meaning every new hire or expanded access directly increased licensing fees.

To address this, City Bank began building a unified banking platform to consolidate all operations into a single system. With over 30 modules in scope, the internal team needed additional engineering capacity to meet the timeline. We joined in January 2025, embedding six engineers directly into City Bank’s development team to build and improve the platform alongside their staff. The engagement is ongoing, with two engineers still actively contributing today.

Challenges

  • A licensing model that scaled the wrong way: Finacle and Ababil both charged per user, so every new hire or expanded access meant higher costs. With over 30 modules tied to these platforms — covering treasury bonds, loans, accounts, cards, cheques, and more — the licensing exposure was significant and growing.
  • No unified system of record: Operations were fragmented across multiple platforms, with data sitting in separate silos. Teams routinely had to jump between tools to complete a single workflow, slowing down operations and increasing the chance of errors.
  • Cumbersome multi-account management: Many City Bank customers hold five or six accounts simultaneously. Without a linked customer identity, relationship managers had to look up each account individually — a time-consuming process that left room for things to fall through the cracks.
  • Scope outpacing team capacity: The platform needed to cover account lifecycle management, treasury operations, loan workflows, card and cheque processing, and a 360-degree customer view. The internal team had the direction but needed more engineers to match the project’s pace.
  • Evolving requirements during development: Stakeholder discussions continuously surfaced new priorities and shifting requirements. The team had to stay adaptable without losing momentum or letting the timeline slip.

Solutions

Build NYC Tech joined as a staff augmentation partner — working within City Bank’s existing team structure and following their technical direction rather than introducing a separate approach.

  • Rapid engineering capacity: We deployed six engineers — primarily backend developers plus a full-stack engineer — who integrated into City Bank’s team and started contributing immediately. This gave the bank the capacity it needed without the time and overhead of permanent hiring.
  • An API layer that cut licensing costs: A core architectural decision was routing all banking requests through the unified platform before anything reaches Finacle or Ababil. The platform logs each request internally, then forwards only what’s necessary to the third-party system. As a result, Finacle and Ababil see just a single user — regardless of how many people are actually using the platform — significantly reducing per-user licensing costs.
  • A “360 Module” for unified customer identity: We built the 360 module, which links all of a customer’s accounts to a single customer ID. Relationship managers can now pull up a complete customer profile in one place instead of searching across multiple accounts and platforms.
  • Ownership of key modules: Our engineers built and improved several core areas — including account opening, maintenance, closing, and treasury bond management — bringing them under the unified platform rather than leaving them dependent on legacy systems.
  • Flexibility as requirements evolved: As stakeholder priorities shifted throughout development, our engineers adapted without stalling delivery, staying in close sync with City Bank’s product team to keep work aligned with what was actually needed.