Thai government bank selects Temenos Corebanking

31 March 2004

Geneva, March 31st, TEMENOS Group AG, (SWX:TEMN) a provider of integrated modular core banking systems, today announced that the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) a major diversified rural bank in Thailand has signed a deal with TEMENOS, IBM and Thai Equipment Research (TER), for 1.2 billion Thai baht (US$30m) to upgrade the bank’s core processes across its 600 branches serving over 10 million accounts.

The TEMENOS solution will support BAAC and its 600 branches, in several business areas including; customer information facilities (CIF), retail loans, deposits, branch automation, Management Information Systems (MIS), and treasury services. The implementation was undertaken by BAAC in line with its objectives to seek new business channels for the bank, e.g., ATMs, online banking, cards, etc. It also looks forward to increasing its fee-based income, as well as enhancing its banking performance and service efficiency to its customers, primarily farm households.

TER, a regional partner of TEMENOS Thailand will be providing integration services and IBM, a strategic alliance partner, will be providing the hardware infrastructure and services to the bank. TEMENOS CoreBanking was designed in tandem with IBM technology. It is a mainframe-based, modern, multi-bank system in a single software image, allowing for rapid and sophisticated product development across all channels. The solution will be deployed on an IBM z/series range with DB2
Database Management system.

Andreas Andreades CEO, TEMENOS, says; “We are delighted that BAAC selected TEMENOS CoreBanking. Our product provides a modern, scalable, retail banking application that handles the largest business volumes so is ideal major bank such as BAAC. The Bank is definitely setting a standard for the local banking industry and our solution. “

Mr. Prapan Asvaplungprohm, Thai Equipment Research Director, said this landmark agreement between TER and BAAC, supported by two of the world’s biggest IT vendors, is the first of our alliance’s offerings for the banking industry in Thailand. “This is the first time in Thailand that one of the largest Thai government banks is going to run on a globally-recognized banking solution, TEMENOS Corebanking,” he said. “BAAC will definitely set a standard for the local banking industry.”

TEMENOS technology is used by over 300 financial institutions world wide. Most recently its CoreBanking product has been selected by Industrial Bank of Korea one of largest banks in South Korea with 15 million customer accounts, 390 branches and 15 million transactions per day and Bansefi, one of the largest government savings banks In Mexico sponsored by the World Bank.

-ENDS-

About Temenos
Founded in 1993, Temenos Group AG is a provider of integrated modular core banking systems to over 590 financial institutions in 110 countries worldwide. Temenos software provides banks with a single, real-time view of the client across the enterprise, enabling banks to maximize returns while streamlining costs. Whether providing 24/7 functionality to the wholesale, retail and private or universal banking sectors, partnering with central banks on core system replacement, or working with the World Bank on solutions for the emerging markets, Temenos knows banking. The company has a transparent approach to its operations and brings to bear its experience, expertise, commitment and professionalism on every project. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the company has 43 offices in 33 countries and is listed on the main segment of the SWX Swiss Exchange (TEMN). For more information please visit www.temenos.com

About Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives
Head-quartered in Bangkok, The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives of Thailand was established in 1966 as a government owned agricultural development bank. The mandate of the bank has been to provide agricultural credit to farm households. The success of the BAAC is founded on the achievement of the dual objectives of (a) maximizing outreach to 3.5 million farm households as its target clientele, and at the same time, (b) maintaining the financial viability and sustainability of its operations and services. Since 1998, BAAC with the assistance of GTZ, has been pilot testing micro-credit programs for extremely poor clients. At the end of 2000, BAAC had 406 microloan clients, the majority of whom were women. In the 33 years of operations, BAAC has gone through a process of reform and gradual transformation from a specialized agricultural lending institution to a diversified rural bank that provides a range of financial services. www.baac.or.th/eng_baac/home.htm

For more information, contact:

Max Chuard
Temenos Director
Corporate Finance & IR
Member of the Executive Board
Tel:             +41 (0) 22 708 1157       
Email: mchuard@temenos.com

Ben Robinson
Temenos Investor Relations Manager
Tel:             +44 (0) 207 290 3012       
Email: brobinson@temenos.com

Bianca Morgan
Temenos PR Manager
Tel:             +44 (0) 207 423 3751       
Email: bmorgan@temenos.com

Chris Patmore
Team 660
Metia for TEMENOS
Tel:             +44 (0) 20 3100 3596       
Email: chris.patmore@metia.com