Challenge
Banks play a critical role in managing systemic risks and ensuring the safe delivery of financial services to the economy. For PNB, maintaining robust and reliable core banking operations was essential to support business value, operational continuity, and the central bank’s mandate for a secure and reliable banking system.
The initiative focused on strengthening the stability of PNB’s mission-critical infrastructure, improving processing efficiency, and ensuring that daily banking services could continue without interruption during the modernization process.
CUSTOMER VOICE
"Ensuring the reliability and resiliency of the bank’s operations is central to PNB’s commitment to enhancing the customer experience as market expectation and regulatory requirements evolve. PNB’s 27 years of partnership with IBM and collaboration with CROZ are critical to addressing that imperative while enabling continuous innovation across our business products, services and processes."
— Constantino Yap, SVP and Group Head for Digital Channel Management and Innovation at PNB
Solution
The modernization was delivered through close collaboration between IBM, CROZ, and PNB’s internal teams, using a phased approach designed to minimize risk and ensure operational continuity.
As part of the project, PNB’s core banking system was modernized to run on the IBM z/OS platform on IBM z16. IBM Resource Access Control Facility was also used to strengthen mainframe security and system controls.
The project approach focused on careful planning, controlled execution, and close cooperation across all teams involved. This helped ensure that the modernization could be carried out while keeping daily banking services uninterrupted.
A key part of the initiative was knowledge transfer and hands-on enablement. Through close collaboration during the project, PNB’s teams were equipped to independently manage, operate, and further evolve the modernized environment.
CUSTOMER VOICE
"Aside from modernising PNB’s core infrastructure, the IBM-CROZ team shared their z/OS knowledge and assisted the Bank’s z/VSE mainframe technical support personnel, who were keeping the lights on with the z/VSE core banking system while implementing and learning the modern z/OS operating system and built-in tools."
— Michael Morallos, FSVP and Group Head for Information Technology, and Cesar Buhay, Project Director at PNB
Results
Since going live, PNB has achieved measurable operational improvements.
Planned production outages were eliminated entirely, falling from twice per month to zero. Nightly batch processing time was reduced by nearly 75 percent, from 13 hours to just 3 hours.
These improvements enabled business processes to run more efficiently and reduced the need for late-night monitoring and troubleshooting by IT teams. As a result, teams are now able to focus more time and attention on other critical initiatives.
The modernization also helped PNB improve system reliability, accelerate processing, and establish a stronger foundation for future growth. It supports the continuity of the bank’s operations while helping PNB operate effectively in an increasingly dynamic financial landscape.
Why it Matters
This project shows how core banking modernization can deliver clear operational value for financial institutions.
By strengthening mission-critical infrastructure, improving processing performance, and enhancing system controls, PNB is better positioned to support secure, reliable, and efficient banking operations over the long term.
For banks facing increasing business, customer, and regulatory demands, this modernization demonstrates how investing in core infrastructure can directly support resilience, continuity, and future readiness.
CUSTOMER VOICE
"Financial institutions across the Philippines face the imperative to modernise mission-critical infrastructure while maintaining the stability and security their customers depend on. This collaboration with PNB and CROZ demonstrates how IBM is helping BFSIs in strengthening operational resilience while building a foundation for future innovation."
— Leo Capinpin, Country General Manager and Technology Leader at IBM Philippines
Industry
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