EDB - Swedbank agrees new long-term contract with EDB

(Oslo, 11 December 2006) Swedbank Norway has entered into a new agreement with EDB for the purchase of a range of solutions for the bank's activities in Norway. This agreement forms part of Swedbank's plans to increase its presence in the Norwegian market. The agreement runs for five years and represents total contract value of around NOK 35 million.

Swedbank Norway has so far concentrated on serving larger corporate clients as well as banks and other financial institutions in Norway. Swedbank has now decided to expand its ambitions in Norway, and will focus on growth in both the commercial and retail banking markets. This places new and greater requirements on the bank's internal and external IT solutions.  
 
"EDB's solutions are a good match for our future requirements in Norway. The company is a leading Nordic player for efficient and customer-oriented solutions in the banking and finance sector, and we have good experience from our existing collaboration. Against this background, it was natural for us to expand our collaboration with EDB as we increase our focus on the Norwegian market ", comments Gry H. Killingstad, Branch Manager at Swedbank.

"It is very pleasing to see that Swedbank has decided, against the background of its existing relationship with EDB, to enter into a more extensive and long-term agreement with us. We shall do our utmost to ensure that our technology plays an important role in helping Swedbank to achieve its objectives in the Norwegian market," explains Eva Trasti, Executive Vice President, Bank and Finance at EDB.
 
Five-year agreement
The contract agreed between Swedbank and EDB runs for five years, and represents total contract value for EDB of around NOK 35 million. The contract provides for EDB to provide Internet banking related solutions for the retail banking market, Debit cards, Staging and Data warehousing, Branch office solutions, Multi-channel dissolution solutions and SLS (Syscon Lending System). In addition to these and other products, EDB will continue to provide existing services in the areas of core banking services, foreign exchange solutions and Internet banking solutions for the corporate market.
 
For further information contact:
Eva Trasti, EVP - Bank and Finance, EDB. Tel: +47 928 97 381
Gry H. Killingstad, Branch Manager, Swedbank. Tel: +47 971 55 665.
Geir Remman EVP - Corporate Communications, EDB. Tel:  +47 970 55017
 
EDB Business Partner is a leading stock exchange listed IT group for the Nordic region. The group has 3,900 employees, and reported turnover of NOK 4.8 billion in 2005. EDB delivers solutions that cover the entire range of business critical IT services from application services and industry-specific solutions through to IT operating services and network solutions.
 
Swedbank opened a branch office in Norway in 2000 as Swedbank Oslo. Swedbank Oslo has grown steadily from initially concentrating on wholesale banking services for small and medium-sized savings banks in Norway to its current role as a total supplier of financing solutions, payment services, fixed income and currency products as well as commercial paper and bonds for Norwegian banks, larger Norwegian corporate and the bank's Swedish corporate customers with operations in Norway.