Savings Banks Group Expands Agreement with Kyndryl to Accelerate Digital Transformation Journey

Multi-year agreement positions bank for its next era of digital innovation and follows the official approval of Kyndryl's acquisition of Samlink

HELSINKI and NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kyndryl (NYSE: KD), the world's largest IT infrastructure services provider, and Savings Banks Group in Finland today announced a 7-year agreement to enable the bank to transform and modernize both its customer-facing and back-office systems. This agreement follows the official closure of Kyndryl's recent acquisition of Samlink, the leading solutions developer and services provider to the banking industry in Finland.

Savings Banks Group is Finland's oldest banking group serving up to half a million Finnish households, small and medium-sized companies, and agriculture. In addition to comprehensive private banking services, the Group also offers services in the areas of investment, real estate and insurance. To reinvigorate Savings Banks Group's ability to adapt quickly to evolving market conditions, the bank selected Kyndryl as its strategic partner for the next phase of its digital transformation journey.

"We have very high expectations for Kyndryl as a new owner of Samlink. It is of the utmost importance for us to secure the business continuity of our critical IT systems and we expect modern and more agile development opportunities for our services. It is evermore crucial to build a solid and efficient foundation for our business needs, which enables us to run and change digital bank in agile and cost-effective way," says Tomi Närhinen, CEO, Savings Banks Group.  

Central to the agreement is the modernization of Savings Banks Group's IT infrastructure, including core banking systems that run on mainframe technology. This modernization will enable the bank to shorten development times of digital innovations and achieve cost efficiencies, while maintaining business continuity to safeguard the customer experience. Collaborating with Kyndryl and Samlink allows the bank to expand its digital and personal services to customers in a highly competitive market challenged by growing fintech sector players.

Optimizing the customer experience has been essential to Savings Banks Group's leadership in the banking sector. They will rely on Kyndryl´s experience and expertise across its six practices to ensure the seamless delivery of the customer-centric services that Savings Banks Group has provided for 200 years.

"We are excited to work with Savings Banks Group to unlock maximum value across technology, data, and operations to accelerate their unique digital transformation, while meeting the changing regulatory requirements," says Anil Joshi, Managing Director, Kyndryl Finland. "On top of managing zCloud workloads and core enterprise services, Kyndryl brings a powerful combination of Cloud services, Security and Resilience, Data and Artificial Intelligence technologies delivered through new ways of working to drive increased agility and end-user experience."

"Samlink brings the experience in solutions development and services for the financial sector. Combined with Kyndryl's demonstrated leadership in IT infrastructure services and vast global talent, we are capable of providing comprehensive technological expertise and deep industry insights to enable financial institutions to build solutions that touch every aspect of the customer journey," adds Senior Partner for Samlink, Arto Sorvoja.

About Savings Banks Group
The Savings Banks Group has promoted the financial wellbeing of individuals and the community for 200 years. We want to be known for our bravery, expertise and passion for excellent customer service. Savings Banks Group consists of local savings banks across Finland and the Savings Bank Centre. In addition to comprehensive retail banking services, we provide our customers with investment, real estate and insurance services. For more information, visit https://www.saastopankki.fi/en/savingsbanksgroup  

About Kyndryl
Kyndryl (NYSE: KD) is the world's largest IT infrastructure services provider. The company designs, builds, manages and modernizes the complex, mission-critical information systems that the world depends on every day. Kyndryl's nearly 90,000 employees serve over 4,000 customers in more than 60 countries around the world, including 75 percent of the Fortune 100. For more information, visit www.kyndryl.com.