HP and Yorkshire Building Society have signed Leeds Building Society as the first client for their cloud-based Shared Services Alliance.
Launched last month, the Shared Service Alliance aims to provide building societies and banks with data centre, service management, application development and client support via the HP's private cloud, while the Yorkshire contributes core application software, industry expertise, regulatory compliance and financial services knowledge.
The ten-year deal with Leeds Building Society stipulates the implementation of a fully hosted core application for mortgages and savings.
Karen Wint, Leeds Building Society's operations director, says: "We want to deliver product innovation combined with the very high levels of customer service that we know our customers value, whilst maintaining our market-leading cost ratios. With a proven track record of delivering large-scale hosted services and innovative technology, HP can help us achieve our ambitious ten-year plan."
Jeremy Suddards, vice president FSI, HP Enterprise Services UK&I, says the agreement marks a major milestone in its plans to provide cloud-based services for mid-tier banking institutions and building societies in the UK.
"LBS is the foundation client of the recently announced Shared Services Alliance with Yorkshire Building Society," he says. "We aim to help them compete on a level playing field with larger financial institutions by providing low-cost IT together with innovative products and enhanced customer interaction."
In a related move, US core banking supplier FIS has launched its first cloud-based, real-time core banking utility for mid-tier banks in Central and Eastern Europe.
The service, hosted by Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa S.A. (KIR), the Polish payment processor and central clearing house for the country's banking sector, will enable third party banks to run their core banking products on a hosted version of FIS Profile.
Commenting on the launch, Aite Group research director Christine Barry says: "There will be a demand from mid-tier banks in countries like Poland for a true Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model which delivers access to a leading banking solution, such as FIS Profile, at an affordable cost."