Database Testing in BFSI: A Case Study on Basel II Securitization Framework
Preethy Balasubramanian - Business Analyst from Domain Enabling Group, Independent Validation Services, Infosys Technologies
Krithika Krishnamani - Test Engineer from Independent Validation Services, Infosys Technologies

Preety Balasubramanian

Krithika Krishnamani

The Banking sector plays a very important role in the economic life of a nation. Its rules and regulations undergo frequent changes based on prevailing economic trends. Banks’ enterprise management divisions face the continuous challenge of the changing huge volumes of data that they collect and maintain in compliance with these changes.

BASEL II Framework in Banks is one such major change in the regulatory world. It is a set of Banking Laws and regulations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Basel Accord are generally adopted by internationally active banks for tracking, reporting and exposing operational, credit and market risks. One of the areas highly impacted by Basel Accord is Asset securitization. It is a structured finance process which involves creating, combining and recombining of assets and securities. Banks and financial institutions are involved in re-designing the entire architecture of their databases in order to comply with the new standards. To link granular data and analyze business requirements, using the right database model and platform is necessary. In such a scenario, database testing is inevitable.

From our experience in validating the changes effected by Basel II on Securitization, we have formulated an optimized approach to be used for any such database testing. We have identified the concise list of validations to be performed in the three areas of database testing, namely, data migration testing, data conversion testing and data refresh testing. This paper discusses the details of each validation along with best practices that can be followed in a database test lifecycle. Best practices include estimation criteria, macros for designing test scripts which will ensure test coverage and assure quality of the deliverables, various loading logics to reduce redundancy and other analysis techniques.

Speaker Profile:

Preethy Balasubramanian

Preethy Balasubramanian is a Business Analyst from Domain Enabling Group, Independent Validation Services, Infosys Technologies. She has been involved in proposal writing, case study development, improving test strategies, analysing automation tools and enhancing domain knowledge. Her experience in software testing includes areas on Anti-Money Laundering and Basel implementation. Her areas of interest are capital markets, securitization and retail banking.

Krithika Krishnamani

Krithika Krishnamani is a Test Engineer from Independent Validation Services, Infosys Technologies. She has been with Infosys for three years in various projects in the Banking domain. She has worked in mortgage banking, internet banking and valuation services. She has been into Basel testing for more than a year. Her experience includes front end and back end testing for various Banking applications. Her area of interest is database testing, credit rating and mortgage banking.