EDS (NYSE: EDS) and CIMB Group, Malaysia's 2nd largest financial services group, announced today the signing of a new 10-year contract in which CIMB has committed to a minimum payment of RM720 million over the 10-year period (RM72 million per annum). The agreement signed between EPIC-I Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of CIMB Group and EDS includes EDS' delivery of an agile architecture built on solutions from EDS Agility Alliance partners that will help CIMB better achieve its consumer banking growth goals.
The new agreement will allow CIMB to consolidate operations and improve overall competitiveness after its recent launch of "CIMB Bank", its new consumer banking brand. It will also enable CIMB to achieve rapid and sustainable cost reduction in IT, and improved service quality and operational flexibility, including a 22 percent overall cost savings from its 2005 baseline after an initial period of 18 months following transformation and cost savings initiatives to be introduced by EDS. CIMB estimates that, under the new agreement, its cost savings over the 10-year period will amount to RM250 million.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, CIMB Group Chief Executive Officer, Dato' Nazir Razak said, "The launch of our new consumer banking brand "CIMB Bank" comes with the brand promise of an vastly improved customer experience - emphasizing speed, efficiency, friendly service and a much wider range of products. Superior IT capability is key to delivering our brand promise. As such it is opportune for us to re-evaluate the partnership with EDS to ensure that our IT infrastructure allows us to stay competitive and flexible in the back-end. We can then focus on our core business objectives, serving our customers better, and growth plans for our regional operations."
EDS introduced an enhanced operational and governance model in the new proposal. It also streamlined delivery capabilities to meet CIMB business objectives. Services are to be delivered from Cyberjaya, Malaysia, using EDS' Best ShoreSM strategy, which ensure high-quality, cost-competitive services are provided from onshore, near-shore and offshore locations.
"This new agreement is aligned with both CIMB and EDS' business goals for growth in the region," said EDS Asia President Joe Eazor. "EDS is committed to a high level of service and value-add. CIMB will also be able to tap on EDS' global expertise, accessed locally through the Malaysian hub."
EDS has an unrivalled track record of helping financial institutions improve on performance levels. Currently, the company serves more than 200 customers from the financial industry including commercial banks, retail banks, mortgage companies, and insurance companies, in more than 30 countries.
EDS also processes 4.1 billion merchant transactions and 5 billion credit card transactions, and supports 50 million credit card accounts and 2 million commercial accounts on an annual basis. In addition, the company manages 99 data centers in 26 countries along with 65,000 servers, and 3 million client desktops.
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About CIMB Group
CIMB Group is Malaysia's 2nd largest financial services provider which is listed on Bursa Malaysia via Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Berhad (BCHB).
In 2004, CIMB Group began the process of creating a strong and competitive universal bank anchored by Commerce International Merchant Bankers (CIMB), the region's largest investment bank. Leveraging on its brand and management, it undertook 4 strategic acquisitions worth RM12.8 billlion involving Commerce-Principal, GK Goh Securities of Singapore, Bumiputra-Commerce Bank and Southern Bank. The Group recently announced an internal reorganisation of BCHB to consolidate BCHB's insurance and Indonesian banking operations into CIMB Group.
Hence, in just 2 years, CIMB transformed itself from Malaysia's no. 1 investment bank into a regional universal banking group. The CIMB Group has grown from a staff strength of 1,000 in Malaysia to 20,000 in 12 countries while its market capitalisation has increased from RM6.3 billion to RM20 billion. The Group's total assets grew from RM14.7 billion to RM155 billion with a further RM18 billion being third party funds under management.
Based on the belief that customers want comprehensive and seamless service which meets the entire spectrum of their financial needs, the CIMB Group now has a full range of financial products and services, both conventional and Islamic, enabling it to serve everyone from the largest corporations to the smallest retail customers through 3 main brand entities:
CIMB Bank (including Bumiputra-Commerce Bank and Southern Bank), the consumer banking arm, which represents personal banking, business banking and direct banking;
CIMB Investment Bank (formerly Commerce International Merchant Bankers), the investment banking arm, which represents investment banking, corporate banking, asset management and private banking; and
CIMB Islamic (formerly Commerce Tijari), which exists as a comprehensive Shariah-compliant parallel bank for all the products and services within the Group.
Media Contacts::
Tengku Zarina Tengku Ibrahim
Head of Corporate Communications,
CIMB Group
Tel : (603) 2087 3055
Email : tzarina.ibrahim@cimb.com
About EDS
EDS (NYSE: EDS) is a leading global technology services company delivering business solutions to its clients. EDS founded the information technology outsourcing industry more than 40 years ago. Today, EDS delivers a broad portfolio of information technology and business process outsourcing services to clients in the manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, communications, energy, transportation, and consumer and retail industries and to governments around the world. Learn more at eds.com.
Media Contacts:
Vincent Leong - Upstream Asia
Tel : (+65) 6323 7377
Email : Vincent.leong@upstreamasia.com
Kimberly Nelson - EDS
Tel : (+852) 2953 7678
Email : Kimberly.nelson@eds.com
