(Oslo 25 April 2001) The Swedish bank FöreningsSparbanken (Swedbank) has today signed an agreement with EDB Business Partner ASA for the further development and the management of the bank's system for credit and loan application processing. The agreement is for a two-year period with a total value of NOK 30 million, and represents an expansion of the existing business relationship with the bank.

Swedbank has almost 4.3 million customers and provides 30% of all residential mortgage financing in Sweden. EDB Fellesdata developed the ASK credit support system used by Swedbank that came into use in June 2000. This system provides functionality for credit evaluation and loan administration, and is integrated with the bank's core systems. The system has 5,000 daily users responsible for the credit processing and loan administration of 500,000 loans.
"We selected EDB Fellesdata as our supplier and partner on the basis of a combination of technological standards, expertise and its ability to carry through a project as well as price" comments Lars Schröder, IT manager for the Credit Department of Swedbank.


Marked improvement in efficiency
"Our goals are to handle the credit processing in a common system for all loan products. The ASK credit and loan support system has met this objective," adds Lars Schröder. Swedbank has carried out surveys over a ten-year period of the time taken to process loan and credit applications, and the results show that the bank has achieved a 30% improvement in the time taken to process loans.

International ambitions
"The contract with Swedbank is very important for EDB Fellesdata. It confirms that EDB Fellesdata offers competitive systems which can satisfy a major Nordic bank's IT support requirements. The development of ASK in co-operation with Swedbank has given us considerable experience of adapting systems to match a customer's work processors and other IT systems, as well as meeting the requirements of the relevant regulatory authorities" comments Ole Trasti, Managing Director of EDB Fellesdata.

EDB Fellesdata currently has a number of customers and contracts in countries outside Norway. The company is now developing its international business, and has so far opened local offices in Stockholm with 8 employees and in Amsterdam with 14 employees to be close to customers and markets.
"Our ambition is to be a leading software house for the banking & finance sector in the Nordic countries and selected European markets. We offer upper-to-date systems well suited to international use as well as extensive expertise in bank development and IT", states Trasti.

Contact names:

Ole Trasti, Managing Director EDB Fellesdata
Tel. +47 22 52 82 60, +47 90 08 91 00

Tom Fr. Johnsrud, Manager International Markets, EDB Fellesdata
Tel. +47 22 52 83 32, +47 90 79 49 80

Bjørn Trondsen, CEO, EDB Business Partner
Tel. +47 22 94 40 40, +47 91 78 56 17