Microsoft and Temenos Join Forces to Innovate Core Banking Solutions

GENEVA and REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 10, 2009 — Temenos Group AG, the market leading provider of integrated core banking systems, and Microsoft Corp. today announced an alliance for delivering core banking solutions with TEMENOS T24 and Microsoft SQL Server to greatly increase operational efficiencies of large-scale banks worldwide.

By choosing the Microsoft platform, TEMENOS T24 customers will benefit from open, modern technology to accelerate innovation, greatly increasing the speed and effectiveness with which new products and services are created. This increased operational efficiency enables front-line staff to provide superior customer service at a lower total cost of ownership.

Temenos is seeing significant customer demand for the Microsoft platform. Already 21 banks have selected TEMENOS Insight, the business intelligence (BI) suite announced in March 2009, demonstrating strong demand for business intelligence in core banking operations. Leveraging the BI capabilities of SQL Server, TEMENOS Insight enables T24 users to analyze and track financial performance, understand customer profitability, and manage risk.

Temenos and Microsoft worked with North Shore Credit Union (NSCU), recognized as one of Canada’s most profitable financial institutions, to deliver a new core banking solution with a strong data management platform based on TEMENOS T24 and Microsoft SQL Server.

“Ours is a fiercely competitive market, and the combined TEMENOS T24 and Microsoft SQL Server platform helps us attract and retain members by providing expert, proactive financial advice based on clear data,” said Fred Cook, chief information officer, NSCU. “If you’re going to be nimble in this industry, then you’d better have a stable banking platform that supports that. The ability to use a Microsoft-based platform to help integrate our entire data management environment and make quicker business decisions is key to giving us a greater competitive edge. It really helps us to provide a broader range of products to our members at a reduced cost.”

According to Robert Hunt, senior research director at TowerGroup, “banks are realizing that the core systems they implemented more than 20 years ago have become difficult to maintain, costly to operate and cannot support complex relationship products. As these banks look to replace their core system, they will want to select a core banking system and platform that best meets their specific requirements.” Hunt stated that “the Microsoft operating platform software and the .NET architecture together provide functionality and scalability comparable to that with mainframe and UNIX-based platforms” and that “leading global core vendors now offer Windows-based versions of their core processing systems. These offerings should lead more large banks to choose a Windows platform when they implement a new core system.”

The new agreement will see both parties collaborate more closely and commit technical, marketing and sales resources to bringing a flexible, high-performance and reliable core banking solution to market, which fully optimizes the use of the Microsoft platform with T24.

“Microsoft has a long-term commitment to supporting mission-critical operations in financial services. Our alliance with Temenos provides our largest financial services customers a cost-effective platform on which they can build future-generation processing capabilities that meet the evolving demands of their business,” said Susan Hauser, vice president, Worldwide Financial Services, Microsoft.

Andreas Andreades, CEO, Temenos, added: “We have observed a growing interest from our customers and prospects in deploying the Microsoft platform for their core banking operations. The recently announced T24 signing of Bank SinoPac in Taiwan, a regional bank with 4 million customers that will run the system on the Microsoft platform, illustrates this trend and provides further evidence that large retail banking operations seek to benefit from the capabilities offered by SQL Server. We are delighted to be increasing our collaboration with Microsoft and that we are able to offer all our customers — regardless of size — the benefits associated with this choice of platform.”

About Temenos

Founded in 1993 and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX: TEMN), Temenos Group AG is a global provider of banking software systems in the Retail, Corporate & Correspondent, Universal, Private, Islamic and Microfinance & Community banking markets. Headquartered in Geneva with 51 offices worldwide, Temenos serves over 700 customers in more than 120 countries. Temenos’ software products provide advanced technology and rich functionality, incorporating best practice processes that leverage Temenos’ experience in over 600 implementations around the globe. Temenos’ advanced and automated implementation approach, provided by its strong Client Services organisation, ensures efficient and low-risk core banking platform migrations. Temenos is top of the IBS Sales League Table 2008, winner every year since its launch of the Best Core Banking Product in Banking Technology magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards and ranks 26th in the American Banker top 100 FinTech companies. Temenos customers are proven to be more profitable than their peers: data from The Banker – top 1000 banks shows that Temenos’ customers enjoy a 62% higher return on assets, a 54% higher return on capital and a cost/income ratio that is 7.2 points lower than non-Temenos customers.

For more information please visit www.temenos.com.

About Microsoft in Financial Services

Microsoft’s Financial Services Group provides software that helps financial firms transform the customer, employee and operations experience so they can maximize opportunities for increased market share and profitability. Microsoft software helps empower people and IT staff within financial firms — and across key focus areas such as advisor platforms, channel renewal, insurance value chain, enterprise risk management and compliance, and payments. Through a combination of Microsoft- and partner-provided solutions, customers enable their employees to turn data into insight, transform ideas into action and turn change into opportunity. More information about Microsoft’s Financial Services Group can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/financialservices.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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