IBM and i-flex solutions form Global Strategic Alliance to help financial services industry cut costs, improve efficiencies

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1 IBM and i-flex solutions form Global Strategic Alliance to help financial services industry cut costs, improve efficiencies 19-Nov-03 Rashmi New Orleans, November 19, 2003, Retail Delivery Show - IBM and i-flex solutions (Reuters: IFLX.BO/IFLX.NS), a leading provider of information technology solutions to the global financial services industry, today announced a global strategic alliance to deliver and market core banking replacement solutions to medium and large size banks in major markets worldwide. The joint solution will help reduce costs and streamline operational efficiencies by transitioning a bank's legacy core banking infrastructure and applications to a modern banking platform, which is more efficient and significantly less expensive to maintain. "In this highly competitive environment, banks need to focus on aligning technology investments with the need to integrate multiple platforms and diverse lines of business," said Mark Greene, general manager, IBM Global Banking Industry. "With i-flex solutions, we will provide customers with a flexible and open-standards based solution that will help them increase operational efficiency and lower costs." The potential benefits of the IBM and i-flex solutions global alliance include: reduction in total cost of ownership and increased operational efficiencies top-line growth through effective competitive differentiation and the adoption of a more focused and effective customer-centric enterprise reduction of risk management capital requirements ability to improve customer loyalty and manage risk customers' choice of a range of offerings from a single source As part of the alliance IBM will promote FLEXCUBE [ranked the No.1 selling Universal Banking Solution in the world by International Banking Systems (IBS-UK) for the year 2002] as a leading banking solution for customers in the UNIX/NT environment. Where

2 appropriate, IBM's Business Consulting Services (BCS) will provide consulting, implementation and integration services. Through Reveleus, i-flex solutions' business intelligence and analytics product suite, IBM and i-flex will offer ways to enhance customer insight, manage risk and improve compliance. Reveleus' pre-packaged analytical applications for financial institutions provide deep subject-area analytical expertise, and are easily extensible to meet customer specific requirements. Furthermore, the combination of Reveleus metadata-driven technology and the IBM banking data model (IFW) solutions enable financial institutions to more rapidly utilize analytics for key decision support. "The real winners here are our customers," said R. Ravisankar, Chief Executive Officer (International Operations and Technology), of i-flex solutions limited. "The world's top selling core banking solution supported and enabled by the largest and most experienced technology vendor in the world is a compelling value proposition for any financial institution interested in reducing costs and increasing service levels." Some of the customers who have selected IBM and i-flex offerings when developing their core banking infrastructure include Syndicate Bank in India, SNS Bank in the Netherlands, and the International Monetary Fund in the USA. i-flex solutions is an established corporate banking leader in all markets worldwide, and a leader for retail banking in the emerging markets as well. In cooperation with IBM, i-flex solutions aims to establish its leadership position among the Tier 1 and Tier 2 retail banks in the developed markets. Technology Leadership Under the terms of the alliance, i-flex will make FLEXCUBE for Retail Banking available, in a phased manner using the enterprise Java beans model, with WebSphere* Internet infrastructure software as the underlying platform. FLEXCUBE will also be made available on IBM DB2* Universal Database. FLEXCUBE, which already runs on IBM's eserver* pseries,* will now run on the complete range of IBM servers. The FLEXCUBE Retail Banking solution will be available in Q Both companies also plan to make available other parts of the FLEXCUBE product suite on the IBM platform in the future. Both IBM and i-flex solutions will continue to enhance the joint solution by incorporating the latest developments in IBM's middleware and database technologies. Joint Marketing, Sales and Delivery IBM and i-flex will jointly market, sell and deliver the FLEXCUBE and Reveleus product suites on IBM's middleware and IBM eserver pseries. In addition, i-flex's FLEXCUBE@ solution (for internet banking and brokerage, which already runs on IBM's eserver pseries and AS400 platforms) will be promoted.

3 The FLEXCUBE product suite is a comprehensive, core banking set of applications covering Retail, Corporate and Investment Banking Operations. It also supports high-end Business Intelligence, Internet Banking and Internet Brokerage functions. A highly scalable solution, FLEXCUBE enables revenue growth while reducing transaction processing costs. FLEXCUBE is highly parameterized, enabling banks to launch new products and services effortlessly and quickly. It facilitates the integrated delivery of banking products across branch networks, telephones, ATMs, POS terminals and the Internet. Reveleus, built on deep financial services domain expertise, provides pre-built, crossfunctional analytics that deliver profitable customer acquisition and retention strategies, timely and focused answers for risk management, and the insight to manage enterprise performance. PartnerWorld for Developers The strategic alliance with i-flex solutions is another example of IBM's commitment to go-to-market with leading independent software vendors (ISVs) through the PartnerWorld for Developers program. Under this initiative, IBM has signed agreements with recognized software leaders such as i-flex solutions. The goal is to provide developers with access to new customers and revenue opportunities through IBM's marketing, sales, and solutions resources. As part of the agreement developers commit to lead with IBM's middleware, server platforms, and services in offerings to customers. For more information, visit or call in North America, outside North America. About IBM's Financial Services Sector IBM is the world's largest information technology (IT) company and provider of IT services, as well as a preeminent technology partner to the world's financial services industry. Working directly with its financial services customers and with IBM certified Business Partners, IBM helps them become more competitive through the innovative deployment of high-impact, on demand solutions that enable financial institutions to achieve flexibility, scalability, variability, robustness and security in their IT architecture. These solutions comprise the full range of IBM capabilities including consulting, software, hardware, research and services. IBM offers solutions that strengthen customer relationships, streamline business processes, reduce costs and risks and enhance technical infrastructure. Additional information can be found at Subscribe to Building an Edge: About i-flex solutions

4 i-flex solutions (Reuters: IFLX.BO & IFLX.NS) is a world leader in providing IT solutions to the financial services industry and has serviced over 430 financial institutions across 101 countries. i-flex offers a comprehensive range of products and customized services that enable financial institutions to cut costs, respond rapidly to market needs, enhance customer service levels, and mitigate risk. i-flex's portfolio of offerings includes FLEXCUBE, an end-to-end product suite for consumer, corporate, investment and internet banking, asset management, and investor servicing. Since its launch in 1997 more than 160 financial institutions across over 74 countries have chosen FLEXCUBE and FLEXCUBE has been ranked the No.1 selling Universal Banking Solution in the world by International Banking Systems (IBS-UK) for the year Reveleus establishes institutional insight to respond to market needs, manage business risk and improve business performance through its suite of advanced analytics and information management products. Reveleus provides the industry's only metadata-driven information management infrastructure, coupled with a suite of integrated analytical applications for the financial services industry. i-flex has over 2,600 employees, with 10 development centers including India, Singapore, and New York. The company has a strong global reach, with sales, marketing and support presence covering 20 overseas locations including 3 subsidiaries (i-flex solutions inc. in the US, i-flex solutions b.v. in the Netherlands, and i-flex solutions pte. in Singapore). In addition, i-flex is represented in over 55 countries through more than 34 corporate business partners. i-flex also has strong alliance and implementation relationships with industry leaders Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems. * Denotes a trademark or registered trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation. Media Contacts: Annika Jensen i-flex solutions annika_jensen@sfo.bm.com Freda Liu Asia Pacific Reveleus - an i-flex business Tel: liupj@my.ibm.com

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