IBSi Sales League Table (SLT) is an annual benchmarking exercise conducted by IBS Intelligence that ranks global banking technology supplier-systems across 20 system categories based on the number of new customer contracts signed in a given calendar year. The SLT has been running for over 20 years and is recognised as a barometer for Financial Technology supplier sales performance across the banking industry. The SLT originally started with five key back-office system areas and has now broadened out to include front and middle office systems critical for a bank in the current context. In addition to the 20 system categories, a domestic SLT is also ranked for domestic deals signed by local suppliers in India, Russia, UK and the USA. Separately, IBSi also ranks the leading Islamic banking suppliers as part of the Islamic Banking SLT. To recognise a core system sale made to purely digital-only banks, IBSi introduced pure-play Digital-only Segment SLT. Every year more than 60 leading global banking technology suppliers submit their nomination for SLT.

Any banking technology supplier with a packaged software product whose functionalities align to the scope, as defined by IBSi, can participate in the process for any of the 20 categories of the SLT. A supplier would need to make separate submissions for each of the 20 categories, and for each product/solution offering in each category. For example, should a supplier have two different solutions sold in the same category, each of those solution sales will need to be presented as a separate submission.

SLT only considers suppliers with a software product/solution, so anyone offering services such as implementation, testing, or consulting for the defined 20 categories will not qualify for participation. Additionally, the product being sold must be to a bank or a financial institution and must offer a complete solution and not just a single niche module in the respective category. For example, a supplier selling only a single FATCA compliance module and submitting the deal under the “Compliance Management” category will not be considered since this is only a single niche module of a compliance management solution.

Supplier-solutions are ranked based on the number of new-name-customer wins by the suppliers in the reporting year, for that solution offering. This is in line with IBSi’s approach to ensuring an objective like-to-like comparison of all the solutions sales that qualify as international deals.

The ranking of SLT is based on the number of sales carried out and not determined by the deal value. We recognise that the value of the deal signed is confidential and contextual to the markets, is highly subjective and can remain unverified. The SLT is committed to being objective, and the ranking is based on verifiable information that serves the international community to relate to it as a
barometer for the real performance of suppliers. Therefore, the basis of ranking is strictly based on verifiable and well-reported information, viz. the number of deals signed with new-name-customers.

In addition to the global Sales League Table, IBSi also ranks the leading Islamic banking suppliers as part of the Islamic Banking SLT. Hence, please indicate any sales that included Islamic Banking functionality by entering a Y in the relevant column to qualify for this category. During IBSi SLT 2020, IBSi also introduced pure-play Digital-only Segment SLT, this category will recognise a Core Banking System (universal system, retail system, lending system) sale made to purely digital-only banks. Please select the type of bank as “digital-only bank” in column E in case of a sale to the digital-only bank to qualify for this table.
The deals that qualify for these two tables would be considered separately from the global SLT. For example, a core banking deal to a digital-only bank would qualify for both the retail banking category and the digital core banking category.

IBSi understands the sensitivity of contracts being confidential. Hence for the client names that the participant would not like to be disclosed, we request them to mark that deal as “off-the-record”. In such a scenario, the name of the client would not be disclosed by IBSi. However, IBSi retains the right to publish names of clients kept as blank or “on-the-record”.

Once the SLT participant submits their deals to IBSI, the research team carries out its verification process by cross-checking of all the claims, including with the previous years’ wins, with all known deals as profiled in IBSI reports, SalesVision and through secondary research; and then come up with a final total of qualified deals for each system. The team may reach out to the supplier during this process for additional proof/documentation to validate the deals.

Upon completing the verification process, the research team will send email communication to the participant attaching the final tally of qualified deals that will be considered for the SLT. The communication also includes a separate list of deals that did not qualify with comments/reasons appended to each. The email requires participants to confirm their acceptance of the list of qualified deals and allows them to contest the final tally of qualified deals within a specific time (typically a week from the email) with adequate proof and reasoning to be submitted for the disqualified deals.

In the absence of any response from the participant within the stipulated time, the communicated tally of qualified deals is considered as final.

No, there is no cost attached to participating in the Sales League Table. However, IBS Intelligence has a right to use the data for analysis and publication purposes.

Supplier-solutions are ranked only based on the number of new-name-customer wins by the suppliers in the reporting year. Deals signed with existing customers – either for incremental licenses or additional modules of the same product are not considered for the SLT as these are typically not based on international competitive bids. However, should the supplier be able to evidence that a particular deal was based on an RFP based competitive bidding process, IBSi would consider the same for the SLT.
Additionally, the SLT 2021 is strictly based on deals that were signed during the calendar year 2020. Only deals that were signed between January to December 2020 will be considered as part of the submission. Deals signed in 2019 and/or 2021 would not be included in the ranking analysis.

The IBSi Sales League table is focused primarily on banks and financial institutions. Sales made in the categories related to insurance companies, AMCs or such financial institutions (viz. Investment Management / Fund Management, Compliance Management, Risk Management and CRM) would also be considered as part of the SLT.

In addition to the Global Sales League Table, IBSi also runs a Domestic Sales League Table for select countries or regions where the number of domestic institutions addressed by local suppliers is high and avoids skewing of the global SLT deals. The Domestic Sales League Table is presently ranked for 4 regions – the US, UK, Russia, and India. These tables consider only suppliers domiciled in that particular country and only count their respective domestic deals (deals signed with local banks / FIs).
Regarding concern around domestic deals being split between the Global Sales League Table and the Domestic Sales League Table, the participant can choose to retain all their deals in the Domestic Sales League Table, so that their deals are not split between the two tables.

The IBSi SLT evaluation panel would be evaluating the quality and nature of the submissions made. The panel would make an informed decision on the banks that need to be contacted for necessary validations and/or confirmations. This would be determined, among other factors, based on the supporting documentation provided, information validated in the public domain, and the existing knowledge base with IBSi. The panel reserves the right to contact the banks quoted in supplier submissions. In any case, please note that IBSi team would keep the supplier informed before formally connecting with the relevant contact person at the bank, as referred in the submission details.

We seek each year to do some analysis on the overall value of the back office systems market. The value of the deal will not be published, although it will be used for analysis purposes. Suppliers are encouraged to provide an approximate value of the deal, for reference benchmarking purposes.

However, please do note, this is completely voluntary.

IBSi is introducing the IBSi LeaderBoard this year. The IBSi SLT LeaderBoard will provide a comparison of continuity of performance with the current year’s performance.