The Spanish subsidiary GFT IT Consulting, S.L.U. will manage the maintenance and development for the majority of the bank's IT applications in Spain. This deal strengthens GFT's position as a strategic IT partner for leading financial institutions worldwide.

"The signing of this contract is a fantastic start to the new year. It builds upon our many years of successful involvement with Deutsche Bank and strengthens our Spanish subsidiary as a competence centre for excellent IT consultancy and application development for the financial sector," says Ulrich Dietz, CEO of GFT.

The contract value will come to approx. EURO 80 million over a period of seven years. As part of the agreement, GFT will, amongst other things, take responsibility for applications that handle payment transactions, online banking, credit card management and securities transactions for Deutsche Bank in Spain. The GFT team members will be on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to maintain the applications.

"As a leading financial institution, we want to ensure excellent customer service and therefore place very high demands on the information technology and IT applications provided for this purpose. They must be reliable in operation and adaptable to the increasingly rapid innovation cycles in a flexible and cost-effective manner," says Wolfgang Gaertner, Chief Information Officer at Deutsche Bank.

GFT and Deutsche Bank have been strategic partners since 2001, during which time GFT has been able to steadily expand its range of skills in the financial sector, particularly in Spain. "We have gained excellent specialist knowledge in the private and corporate banking sector, which can be combined perfectly with our established technological knowledge," says GFT Executive Board Member Marika Lulay.

With this agreement, GFT has further expanded its position as one of the leading IT solutions providers to the financial sector. The company in Spain now has one of the largest European IT banking competence centres, with more than 800 IT specialists and banking experts. "This puts GFT in the best possible position for continuing its dynamic growth on the basis of this strategic orientation," summarises Ulrich Dietz, CEO of GFT.