FINA SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW

1. INTRODUCTION

In response to the need for better bank supervision systems USAID developed a state-of-the-art information management system for Bank Supervision Authorities called FINA. FINA is the system to collect data from banks, store them in the data base and generate different reports using very flexible report designer tools.

The advances of the FINA are:

• FINA is fully customizable and localizable system at user level; it is independent of any legal, regulatory, or accounting framework. Changes in input/output forms does not require additional programming and can be implemented into system very quickly with any staff who knows spreadsheet functions.
• FINA is platform independent and works on Windows, Linux, AIX and Solaris.
• FINA is database independent. It supports 4 main data base systems -MSSQL, Oracle, DB2 (earlier version) and MySQL.
• FINA is 3 tire java application and this makes it scalable and extendable.
• System has very low software/hardware requirements. It works on any Computer (IBM or MAC compatible) higher than Pentium 2/200MH, on any OS supporting Java Virtual Machine (Windows, UNIX, etc.) and on any IP based network.
• FINA is open source under the GNU/GPL license. All components used in the system are free and does not require license fees.
• Main outputs from FINA system are : UBPR (Uniform Bank Performance report), CAEL/CAMEL, Early Warning Systems, Trends/Time Series.
• FINA is implemented and tested in 4 Central / National banks in the countries of Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan. Currently being implemented in San Marino.

2. MAIN CONCEPTS

Main idea of the FINA project is to build customizable system. Functionality of all central banks and supervisory agencies are very similar: data collection from banks, checking, storing to data base and then designing/generating of different reports.

Open Source Joint Project

FINA is Open Source project under the LGPL/ GNU license. All components used in the system also Free. The main idea of the FINA from organizational point of view is to share the experience and develop system together with several Central banks. As system is very flexible and extendible additions done for each site can be very easy implemented into system and used by other members. Special web based discussion forum, issue manager, bag tracking tool, etc. makes it very useful for members.

Meta Data Structure

Returns submitted by banks (call reports, supervisory forms, statistical data, etc.) being changed time by time based on changes/additions in regulations or new business requirements. Therefore we decided to built the system which should be flexible and easy changeable. This was achieved by the concept of the Meta Data Tree. Any table can be described as hierarchical data structure called  Meta Data Tree.

Report Designer

Output reports also could be changed very often. To capture those changes into the system FINA has Report Designer. It is very flexible and easy to use tool. Meta Data Tree and Report designer makes FINA easy changeable and customizable system.

Languages and Locales

FinA can be translated into any language. To configure FinA for another language user has to complete the following three procedures: a) Create locale. B) Create/Translate message bundle and c) Translate Menu/Meta Data Tree.

User Manager

The User Manager organizes the roles and users with access rights. Each user can have original permissions or can be member of the group (role) and inherit all predefind permissions. User management can be organized based on physical units and/or on logical groups.

FINA Sponsor

USAID is the initiator and sponsor of the FINA project. In all 4 countries FINA implementation where founded by USAID. USAID have funded not only FINA implementation, customization and training but also Servers and Workstation computers and/or Network Infrastructure for Supervisory Agency.

3. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Three Tire Architecture

FINA is 3 tire java application:

• Client Side – Java Application and/or Web Interface
• Server Side – Jboss (or Oracle App. Server, Bear WebLogic, etc)
• Data base – My SQL, MS SQL, ORACLE, DB2

Security

The default implementation of the JBoss security framework is based on the JAAS API. The JAAS 1.0 API consists of a set of Java packages designed for user authentication and authorization. It implements a Java version of the standard Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) framework and compatibly extends the Java 2 Platform’s access control architecture to support user-based authorization. JAAS authentication is performed in a pluggable fashion. This permits Java applications to remain independent from underlying authentication technologies. More details about JAAS API you can find here.

See Section “DOCUMENTS” for more details.