Temenos agrees edge IPK acquisition

Founded in 2001, edge IPK is headquartered in the UK, with operations in India and the US, providing financial institutions with technology that delivers consistent user experience across multiple channels, products and geographies.

The vendor's flagship edgeConnect product counts Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, Zurich and Allianz among its customers, with UK start-up Metro Bank - a Temenos T24 customer - set to join the list.

Temenos says that the acquisition will help it compete in the financial services front office application market, which analyst house Ovum estimates is approximately the same size as the core banking one.

The Swiss company says edge IPK's technology will help it to offer a common UI across all of its products, a better user experience for direct customer channels as well as additional functionality, such as online customer acquisition. It will continue to sell edgeConnect on a standalone basis and also stresses that all existing UIs that Temenos customers are using will continue to be supported.

The deal - expected to be earnings neutral in 2012 - is slated to close at the beginning of October. It is the first under new CEO David Arnott, who took over in July after Guy Dubois quit just a year into the job amid plunging license revenues and a failed bid for rival outfit Misys.

Says Arnott: "Customers are increasingly consuming financial services via the Internet - using PCs, tablets and smartphones - and, as such, the range of services provided by financial institutions and the quality of the user experience is becoming a key battleground and a major determinant of customer satisfaction, as well as a vital tool for cross-selling and customer retention. With this acquisition, we are giving our customers the capability to out innovate their competitors, launch new products more quickly and deliver a far superior customer experience."

Shares in Temenos were down one per cent at CHF14.80 in morning trading.