31 Jan 2019
Successful introduction of Avaloq platform at Raiffeisen

St.Gallen, January 31st, 2019. All Raiffeisen banks at 900 sites in Switzerland are live on the Avaloq platform - The two companies readjust their long-term collaboration.

Raiffeisen and Avaloq have made IT history: one of Switzerland’s biggest IT projects was successfully completed at the start of January. In a first for the financial industry, 253 banks (246 Raiffeisen banks, six branches and the central bank) will now be operated on one platform. The platform is available to all 11,000 employees at 900 separate Raiffeisen sites throughout Switzerland.

Long-term continuation of a successful collaboration

While Avaloq and Raiffeisen, the third-largest banking group in Switzerland, continue their long-standing, close and successful collaboration, the companies have signed a long-term agreement with regard to the operation of the new platform. Under the agreement, Raiffeisen Switzerland will acquire Avaloq’s 49% stake in the previous joint venture ARIZON Sourcing AG. In future, Raiffeisen Switzerland will further develop and operate the platform itself. ARIZON will be fully integrated into Raiffeisen Switzerland in the first half of 2019.

Future-ready platform enables agile digitalisation

Rolf Olmesdahl, COO and Member of the Executive Board of Raiffeisen Switzerland, said: “This new core banking system allows us to provide our employees with a new platform. With this, Raiffeisen Switzerland is laying the foundation for the agile implementation of future digital projects. After completion of the migration, for strategic reasons we wanted Raiffeisen Switzerland– and contrary to the original plan – to be able to operate and further develop the banking platform ourselves in the future. In the context of this transaction, accruals of CHF 69 million were set up, which are included in the special items of CHF 300 million reported in the year end results of the Raiffeisen group for 2018. We would like to thank everyone at Avaloq and ARIZON who has been involved in the project for their constructive and professional work.”

Jürg Hunziker, CEO of Avaloq: “We are very proud of what we have achieved together with Raiffeisen and ARIZON. This project was the largest in Avaloq’s history and is a milestone in the timeline of both the company and the entire financial sector. To date, no other fintech and software company has succeeded in migrating 253 banks to the same platform. This shows that Avaloq technology meets all the requirements of a tier 1 bank. I would like to thank the employees of all the companies involved who made this success possible with their great commitment. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Raiffeisen. Our enhanced retail banking expertise will benefit the entire Avaloq community, which has once again grown with the addition of some well-known new customers in recent months.”