S1 Corporation (Nasdaq: SONE), the leading provider of customer interaction software solutions for financial and payment services, today announced the signing of an agreement with the ATEbank of Greece S.A. (ABG) to supply the full Postilion suite to replace the bank's existing ATM-driving platform and enable it to expand its service offering.
This agreement was brokered by Codix S.A., S1 Corporation's Postilion reseller in Greece, which will implement and support the system.
In the first phase of the project, Postilion Realtime will be used to drive the bank's existing and new ATMs. ABG intends to migrate its current network of 600 ATMs - branded as ATEnet - and the 15 ATMs it drives on behalf of another Greek bank to Postilion in mid-2006. During this phase Postilion Realtime will replace the incumbent ON/2 switching platform, connecting to the Greek national switch (DIAS), to Visa and MasterCard, and to the core banking system and back-office systems.
Additionally, Postilion Realtime will enable the bank to fulfill its EMV compliance commitments. Postilion PostCard will manage ABG's 1,000,000 debit cards. Postilion Office will allow the bank to perform continuous back-office processing without impacting the online system.
The bank plans to expand the reach of its ATM network, implement new banking channels, and offer new financial services on the Postilion Realtime platform. The bank's goal is for Postilion Realtime to become its financial transaction processing platform, with all transactions from all the bank's subsidiaries and channels being routed through Postilion Realtime to the relevant authorising module on the host system. Postilion Realtime will also provide stand-in authorisation, thereby allowing the bank to offer 24 x 7 service on the new banking channels.
Anastasios Papanikoloau, director of the electronic banking department at ATEbank of Greece, explains why the bank chose Postilion: "We were looking for an open systems transaction processing platform to replace our existing proprietary system. In Postilion, we found a solution with the breadth of functionality that will become central to our strategy for new banking service offerings to the Greek market. For instance, ABG intends to offer Internet banking, Phone banking, Web Kiosks and has ambitions of becoming the location of choice for utility bill payment - with Postilion, we can do this with ease."
"This agreement," says Chris Pappas, the president and CEO of Codix, "highlights S1 Corporation's growing profile in the European market and Postilion's reputation as the open technology transaction processing system of choice. Postilion has a fast time to market and is designed so that support, maintenance, new integrations, and system enhancements can be done cost effectively with industry-standard technical resources."
"S1 considers this a flagship implementation in the region and an important partnership between these three organisations," says S1's head of operations in Europe and the Middle East, Jan Kruger. "ATEbank of Greece has purchased the breadth of functionality that our software offers. We are delighted that, after thorough due diligence, a leading European retail bank considers our product best in class. This underlines Postilion's position as the leading open systems payment product on the market."