CIMB has been lauded on multiple occasions by the analyst community (IDC Financial Insights notwithstanding) as a champion for 'super-regionalisation,' that is the push by local Asia Pacific banks to build a network of operations across several markets in the region. Alongside this bid for multi-jurisdictional expansion is the opportunity to build super-regional technology foundations, or IT platforms that are integrated enough to viably support and grow the operations in multiple geographies. This was what CIMB was building towards with its 1Platform initiative. The five-year old programme (now drawing to its conclusion) involved, among others, the creation of a single core banking system with enough local market customisation capabilities, as well as the formation of various 'centres of excellence' for application development, delivery and production.