The Banking Industry Architecture Network (Bian), an organisation working to establish a service-oriented architecture (SOA) standard in the finance industry, has signed up PNC as its first US bank member.
Bian was spun out of SAP in 2008 as an independent, member owned, not-for-profit association to establish and promote a common architectural framework for banking interoperability issues.
In addition to PNC, German bank KfW Bankengruppe and vendors Nucleus Software and the Asseco Group have also now joined up, taking Bian's membership to 38.
They come aboard just weeks after the launch of the group's new Service Landscape, version 2.0, a blueprint of core banking system building blocks that Bian describes as a "significant step" in its mission to deliver full banking functionality service domains.
Bian says its work will eventually allow banks to improve business agility and make significant cost savings on IT integration, which can be as much as triple the purchase costs of the original software.
Only last week, analyst house Gartner warned that exponential increases in demand for IT resources at the biggest banks are overturning classic models of economies of scale to usher in a new 'law of diminishing IT returns'.
Steve Van Wyk, head, operations and technology, PNC, and Bian chairman, says: "I am convinced that cost pressures and increased banking regulations will lead to a new focus on people, processes and technology within the financial services.
"To remain the preferred choice for our customers we must become the 'easy-to-use bank', providing superior client experience anywhere, at any time, on any device. Bian is going to support us in achieving the flexible IT infrastructure needed to offer this level of service."