Accenture and Meridea Chosen for Initial Development of Pension Administration System for the Finnish Centre for Pensions and Major Insurers

Significant Technology Partnership Will Create System Serving 1.5 Million Beneficiaries

HELSINKI, Finland; Oct. 14, 2003 – Accenture and Meridea Financial Software Ltd. will lead the initial technology development of a pension administration system for the Finnish Centre for Pensions and a consortium of Finnish pension insurance companies.

Under the agreement, Accenture will help the consortium design and implement the development environment and technical architecture for the pension administration system. The system will serve all major Finnish pension insurance companies representing nearly all of Finland’s private-sector beneficiaries, approximately 1.5 million people. The Finnish Centre is the statutory central body for the country’s statutory earnings-related pension plan.

Accenture will base the solution on Meridea Product Suite’s development tools and Meridea’s software methodology. Meridea was founded by Accenture, Nokia, the financial group Sampo and the venture capital company 3i in 2001 to create software managing customer interaction in financial services.

“The Finnish Centre for Pensions and the consortium selected Accenture because of its ability to deliver high-quality work under a tight schedule, without sacrificing reliability and long-term viability,” said Ari Ikonen, director of the Finnish Centre for Pensions. “Meridea’s open, standard, well-documented and proven J2EE environment fits well into our technical architecture requirements.”

Accenture is a global strategic sales and delivery partner of Meridea. This is the companies’ third joint contract win.

“Building on Accenture’s extensive experience in delivering complex development solutions, we are confident that we can efficiently help lay a strong foundation for serving these beneficiaries,” said Ari Seppälä, a partner in Accenture’s Financial Services operating group.

“Meridea’s technology enables the consortium to cut development costs and project time compared with conventional development approaches,” said Esa Tihilä, chief executive officer, Meridea.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills, and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 83,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$11.8 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2003. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Meridea
Meridea Financial Software Ltd. enables retail financial institutions to offer streamlined and uniquely accessible banking services to customers. Its Meridea Product Suite (MPS) is a complete software package for customer interaction management. The solution enables quick and cost-effective improvement of customer interaction by managing multiple channels in a way that provides a single view to customers as well as maximised revenues and unrivalled business flexibility to financial institutions. The first true mobile banking solution, Meridea Smart Client Edition (part of MPS) gives banks the freedom to accommodate their customers at any time or place, even when they are not connected to the wireless network. Founded in 2001 by industry leaders Accenture and Nokia, joined by the financial group Sampo and the venture capital company 3i, Meridea employs 100 people and is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. Its homepage is www.merideasoftware.com.

###

Ari Ikonen

+358 400 365 204

ari.ikonen@etk.fi

Minna Ranta

+358 205 725 627

minna.ranta@accenture.com

Esa Tihil

+358 400 522 053

esa.tihila@merideasoftware.com