Helsinki, Finland, 2013-11-07 11:18 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Press release 7.11.2013

Aktia renews its core banking system

Aktia Bank is renewing its core banking system, with a completion date in 2015.
The renewal is a major step in Aktia’s Action Plan 2015, which aims to make
Aktia the Finnish champion in customer service, and to enhance its
competitiveness.

The renewal of the core banking system was necessitated by changes in customer
behaviour and banking regulation, as well as the current challenging economic
situation. Aktia is targeting yearly cost savings of €5 million in IT costs,
and more cost-efficient processes. The total investment is €30 million,
inclusive of Aktia’s internal work.

“The renewal of our core banking system will allow us the flexibility to
develop more efficient processes and enables us to launch new products and
services across all channels – including branch, phone, internet banking and
mobile – much faster than before,” says Magnus Weurlander, Director of Banking
Products and Processes at Aktia.

Aktia and the current service provider, Samlink, have agreed on services during
a transitional period, as well as the services that Samlink will provide in the
future. Samlink will also support Aktia during the core bank replacement
project.

New solutions to comply with future needs

Aktia has chosen the international provider of banking software systems,
Temenos' T24 core banking system, and the Swedish Emric's credit processing
system, as new platform for the core banking systems.

“Both service providers are market leaders in their respective fields, and
cooperation with them enables us to leverage on development initiatives from
other banks globally and in the Nordic region. Our choice of vendors was based
on their proven solutions and ability to respond to changed needs in banking”
says Weurlander.

“We are delighted to have been chosen by Aktia Bank to replace its core banking
system with T24. Temenos is committed to driving innovation in Finland and the
Nordic countries and we look forward to working with Aktia. Aktia will also
benefit from Temenos’ industry-leading levels of research & development which
will allow them to continuously improve the functionality and technical
performance of their core banking system”, says Jean-Michel Hilsenkopf, Temenos
Regional Director for Europe.

Emric is specialised in solutions and credit management services with a focus
on the Nordic market. With Emric’s solution Aktia will be able to provide
better and faster services, thus improving customer service.

“We at Emric are delighted to be entrusted to provide our solution for loan
origination and administration to Aktia. Our cooperation with Aktia is an
important step in our further expansion of Emric in Finland.We believe that
together we will be able to enable the best possible service to the bank's
customer”, says Pedram Tadayon, CEO Emric.

About Temenos

Temenos Group AG is the market-leading provider of banking software systems to
retail, corporate, universal, private, Islamic, microfinance and community
banks, wealth managers, and other financial institutions. Headquartered in
Geneva with 58 offices worldwide, Temenos software is proven in over 1,500
customer deployments in more than 140 countries across the world.

About Emric

Emric is the leading Product and Service provider with a Nordic base and global
presence. Our customers are banks, finance and leasing companies. Emric is a
spin-off from a banking and finance business established in 1994 and since then
the business has been increasingly refined so that it today focuses entirely on
providing services and powerful solutions for the various stages of the credit
sales, decision and administration processes. Emric has approximately 200
personnel within the two business areas of Products and Services. In addition
to the head office in Stockholm, there are offices in Kalix, Uppsala, London,
Belgrade and Jakarta.

AKTIA BANK PLC

For more information, please contact:
Magnus Weurlander, Director, tel. +358 10 247 6383

Aktia in brief:
Aktia Group provides a broad range of products within banking, insurance and
real estate agency. Aktia operates mainly in coastal areas and inland growth
areas. Aktia has about 300,000 customers who are served by nearly 1,000
employees at branch offices and via Internet and telephone services. Aktia's
shares are listed on the list of NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd. For more information
about Aktia, see www.aktia.fi