IBM to Manage IT Infrastructure for Payment Business Services

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Payment Business Services (PBS), Denmark’s leading provider of payment services, today announced a seven-year strategic services agreement for IBM to manage PBS’ IT infrastructure. The agreement comes into effect on April 1st, 2007.

The contract covers the operations and maintenance of PBS’ IT infrastructure -- including mainframe, mid-range servers and network. IBM will provide a flexible solution expected to bring significant cost savings to PBS and enable the company to grow and strengthen its position in Denmark and abroad. PBS operates in Denmark and the Nordic region and is planning to become a significant player in the northern-European market.

PBS develops and operates solutions for payment systems to banks, private businesses and public institutions. The company is also the largest card processor in the Nordic countries measured by transaction volume, and provides services to Danish and foreign card acquirers and issuers.

With 1.5 billion transactions processed in 2006, PBS needed a partner to ensure flexibility in managing the growing number of transactions. PBS will leverage IBM’s leadership within IT services and retain responsibility for system operation and client relationships.

“As we continue to focus on the development and operation of payment services, our core business, we also want a strong IT partner who can meet our requirements for flexible, scalable solutions and support our international growth strategy,” says PBS CEO Flemming L. Jensen.

“The payments space is rapidly evolving through ongoing mergers and acquisitions and the introduction of new ways for banking consumers to conduct transactions using mobile phones, smart cards and radio frequency identification (RFID),” says Sven Kolstrup, Country Executive, Global Technology Services, IBM Denmark. “Financial firms like PBS have an opportunity to capitalize on these and other emerging market trends to grow their business and compete on a global stage, based on a flexible and open IT infrastructure from IBM.”

71 IT specialists from PBS will transfer to IBM.