Cajasol Signs 42.3 Million Euro, Four-Year Agreement With IBM

Cajasol, the financial institution established by the merger of Caja San Fernando and El Monte, has signed a four-year, 42.3 million euro-contract with IBM (NYSE: IBM) that will help the savings bank to reach the business goals of the merger and achieve its growth objectives.

The aim of the agreement, which includes IBM software, hardware and services, is to enhance the service provided to Cajasol customers. The new consolidated information technology (IT) platform will allow Cajasol to expand its business in Andalusia, Madrid and the Spanish Mediterranean Coast. It will also enable the company to offer higher quality and real-time services to a growing number of customers with greater flexibility and at a lower cost.

According to Antonio Pulido, Cajasol’s president, “The successful merger process in which Cajasol was created had to include the enhancement of our IT platform in order to offer to our customers banking services at all of our branches and channels. This means innovation not only in the use of new technologies, but also leveraging the efficiency enhancements achieved in our branch network, to offer better solutions for each of our customers’ needs.”

“We will continue contributing our IT capacities and business know-how to Cajasol’s innovation goals, which will have a positive impact on the services that this savings bank provides to its customers,” affirms Amparo Moraleda, general manager IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Israel.

As part of the agreement, IBM will:

* Update Cajasol’s software platform. The bank will renew the software products in its mainframe and distributed environments and will incorporate new solutions to optimize security, reliability and availability for assuring the highest service level and quality possible.
* Modernize the corporate server platform. The agreement includes the renewal and increase of the processing capacity of Cajasol’s IBM corporate servers.
* Provide backup and disaster recovery services. In the event of any disruptions, Cajasol will be able to resume its operations in the shortest time possible from an alternative IBM center without any loss of information.
* Provide of consultancy services for the coordination of the IT roles on the merge process and also services for the new technology evolution projects.
* Supply maintenance services of Cajasol technological platform (hardware and software). IBM will have a team of specialists on hand to resolve any maintenance issues in order to ensure uninterrupted operations.

Through this agreement, Cajasol, with over two million clients and about 800 branches in Spain, is seeking to reaffirm its position as a technology, innovation and quality service leader.

The agreement was signed in September 2007.

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