Alfa-Bank passed to the new standard "IFRS 16" based on SAP

2020: Project completion on transition to the IFRS 16 standard based on SAP

On May 19, 2020 the Alfa-Bank company announced project completion on transition to the updated standard of accounting of lease agreements of IFRS 16 based on SAP S/4HANA. The updated system will cover more than 9000 employees and 700 bank departments in the territory of Russia. The project was implemented in cooperation of experts of msg Plaut company and specialists of Alfa-Bank with methodological support of PwC company.

According to the company, accomplishment of automatic postings of accounting of lease according to requirements of Bank of Russia No. 659-P "About a reflection order on accounts of accounting of lease agreements by credit institutions" (IFRS 16) became the key purpose of implementation. The digital project will allow Alfa-Bank to exclude risks of claims from the external and internal controlling divisions. The solution is deployed based on the SAP S/4HANA system with implementation of functionality of maintaining and approval of agreements and also maintaining data on purchase of services of lease.

Within the project employees of the bank execute a number of difficult methodological tasks of approval of approaches of accounting of lease agreements. During implementation criteria for determination of belonging of the agreement to the IFRS 16 standards were created. For reflection of correct information on the agreement in a system it is enough to enter the key analysts allowing to automatically determine relevance of the document to accounting according to IFRS 16. A system allows to create planned lease payments and reflects their execution in documents of postings. In addition, the solution allows to use additional tax registers and the updated reporting forms for the purpose of disclosure of information on lease.

The bank timely implemented all necessary completions which, on the one hand, meet all requirements of the Bank of Russia, and with another – are optimum built in the current processes of business divisions of our bank. Elena Skvortsova, the chief of the department on automation of administrative activity of Alfa-Bank noted

The implementation project of IFRS 16 became for Alfa-Bank sign both in terms of quality of the implemented product, and in terms of implementation of difficult functionality within the existing information system. As a result the bank had an opportunity to close bigger quantity of business challenges, using at the same time a usual, convenient system with the intuitive interface. All this became guarantee of successful and timely start of commercial operation of a system during which Alfa-Bank received transparent accounting, a scaling option of the solution and its further centralization. Andrey Goryaynov, the deputy CEO of SAP CIS commented

One of key features of the project that it is implemented using Agile methodology. We executed development and testing of the solution based on the scenarios which are consistently implemented within four sprints by three-week cycles. Each sprint consisted of development, setup and testing with users of a prototype of functionality of a system. During the project on special workshops we showed the solution to users, trained them in work with a system and with the planned functionality. For May, 2020 we trained about 300 business users and employees of a support service in Moscow and regions. Alexander Shavergin, the project manager from msg Plaut noted