Banco Sabadell and Accenture Team to Transform the Bank's Technology Infrastructure

Barcelona/Madrid, January 19, 2000 -- Accenture, a leading global management and technology consultancy, and Banco Sabadell, Spain’s fourth-largest banking group, today announced a multi-year program for transforming the bank’s technology infrastructure.

This initiative will enable the bank to manage customer information across multiple channels and increase its efficiency and aptitude for future growth. When fully implemented, the bank’s updated technology infrastructure will facilitate the development and management of new products and services -- reducing time- to-market.

"Working together, we’re building the capabilities that will enable Banco Sabadell to compete effectively in a buyer-driven marketplace and create value for their shareholders," said Joel P. Friedman, Accenture global managing partner--banking and financial markets. "This agreement demonstrates Accenture’s commitment to team with clients to help them achieve rapid change in today’s marketplace."

Specifically, Accenture will design and implement a strategy to migrate the bank’s information systems from multiple units -- including its treasury system that Accenture helped build in 1997 -- to a single platform, thereby improving access to information throughout the bank. In addition, Accenture will help the bank develop new applications for the planning and management of all its non- traditional banking services, including leasing and insurance, among others.

The transformation initiative at Banco Sabadell draws on Accenture’s knowledge capital and leverages advanced design models for integrated management of a broad range of banking operations and activities. This work will leverage the Besaide architecture, which Accenture developed in collaboration with long- term client Bilbao Bizcaia Kutxa (BBK), a leading savings bank in Spain and one of the largest financial institutions in the Basque Country that now owns the architecture. Besaide enables the creation of an integrated banking platform that supports all major commercial and retail banking activities.

Banco Sabadell and Accenture will be supported by professionals from Informática de Euskadi -- an organization formed by BBK and Accenture in 1997 to provide Besaide application development and support services.

Banco Sabadell
Banco Sabadell is the fourth largest banking group in Spain, and the largest in Catalonia, with total consolidated assets of more than 2.8 billion pesetas.

With more than 39,000 shareholders and a staff of 6,500, Banco Sabadell heads the financial group, Grupo Banco Sabadell, which is also comprised of Solbank, Banco Asturias and Sabadell Multibanca. The group’s growing network of 670 branches spans all of Spain’s autonomous communities as well as 14 countries.

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Roxanne Taylor

+1 (917) 452 5106

roxanne.taylor@accenture.com