BIAN is trying to build the perfect bank.

This week BIAN, which stands for the Banking Industry Architecture Network — will release version 3.0 of its Service Landscape, a “bank on paper” that covers all the major business processes of a bank — some 280 at this point.

The organization has just four employees, but you could be excused for thinking it was much bigger. Based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and headed up by Hans Tesselaar, formerly of ING Group, BIAN hosts three gatherings a year that bring together CIOs and senior tech staff from more than 20 of the world’s largest banks.

BIAN was formed in 2008, to create standardization in the financial services industry through service-oriented architecture. The goal of the company is to increase efficiency and interoperability among FIs. Membership skews European for now, with ING, ABN Amro, Rabobank, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Société Générale and UBS being just a few of the member banks. PNC was the sole major American bank for some years, but was recently joined by First Niagara. PNC’s chief information officer, Steve Van Wyk, is the chairman of BIAN’s board.

Additionally, nonbank players in the space such as IBM, Microsoft,  SAP, Infosys, SWIFT and Sungard are members of the group in an advisory capacity.

The organization is a model for banks to work together to solve problems that plague the industry as a whole, such as complexity in the bank’s technical processes.  BIAN is also developing tools to help banks put its models into practice. The Service Landscape, in other words, is the What, while BIAN’s other models will be the How. Ultimately the organization hopes to provide a platform or “app store for banks.” (Platforms and app stores are very buzzy concepts for banking in 2014.)

Winning over banks in the U.S. is important for growing the organization, which has solid footing in Europe and a presence on all seven continents. “We’re finding the Tier 2 banks are more willing to share,” Tesselaar said. The larger banks tend to keep to themselves on IT matters, and most banks are working with idiosyncratic systems, which, of course, is one of the problems BIAN is taking on.

“American CIOs are very risk-averse for several good reasons,” Tesselaar said, citing regulation and organizational complexity among them. “In general, European CIOs have more support from the board.”