1. Introduction
Strides in the field of technology have redefined the role and structure of an IT department in a Bank. Rapid strides in the field of technology redefined the use of technology in a banking. The fact that using better technology and systems, banks can garner more customers, retain existing ones and channel more of the customers business to its counters has forced business department to now look at IT as an effective marketing tool. On the operational side, the power of IT in reducing transaction costs, providing better customer service and offering an over-all customer convenience has basically made this a win-win situation for both banks as well as its clients. These have become the main drivers for getting IT the importance it has got in banks in recent times.
The nerve centre of technology in a bank’s IT dept. is the ‘Core Banking System’. This paper aims at understanding the role of core systems, the scope of core systems, evaluation methodologies adopted by banks in selecting core systems, typical pitfalls in implementations, and recent and future trends in the core systems.
II. What is a Core-Banking System?

Core banking systems are basically the heart of all systems running in a bank and it forms the Core of the bank's IT platform. Amongst other functionalities, it provides the customer information management, central accounting and the transaction-processing functions, which by far are the most fundamental processes in a bank. With the advancement in technology and with passage of time, core systems now-days tend to cover more and more functionality giving the bank an integrated solution for most of its operations in different business lines. Alongside, it also provides a central operational database of customers' assets and liabilities giving facility to generate a 360 degree view of the customer’s relationship with the bank, which is