Information technology

In 2010, the Bank implemented its adopted information technology strategy, while continuing the consolidation of its IT architecture with reducing the number of solutions in use and to increase costeffectiveness. In addition, focus was also placed on developing solutions for the highestquality customer support services: the upgrading solutions for electronic channels, the upgrading of the accounting system and its integration in the Bank's IT system, the completion of the consolidation of support following mergers by abandoning all solutions used at the merged banks and ensuring the conditions for the consolidation of support for legal entities in T24.

In 2010, NLB continued to take over the maintenance of packages and solutions purchased in recent years as a cost control measure. The takeover of the package for retail customers is nearly complete, while activities related to solutions at bank counters and for the support of corporate banking customers will continue over the next two years.

Retail banking receives stable support. The upgrading of the support system was linked to new products, more efficient counter services and compliance with regulators' requirements. The Bank thus provided users increased security with respect to electronic card transactions and the use of e-banking. The most important changes in 2010 related to electronic sales channels, as the Bank upgraded its telephone banking and Klik ebanking services and introduced Klik for mobile phones, while adding additional security components in addition to new services. With regard to the security of ebanking, the Bank is also developing a solution for the early identification of transactions that could involve fraud, similar to the solution in place for years in card operations.

In corporate banking, NLB continued adding functionality to products by upgrading T24, with the aim of facilitating the migration of deals from old solutions in T24 to the greatest extent possible. Development for support of guarantee operations was completed in 2010. Therefore, the migration of these transactions to T24 was also started. The focus in 2010 was on lending transactions and the purchase of claims for non-residents and customers without a commercial account at the Bank. Together with its partners, the Bank successfully introduced the electronic exchange of invoices and their integration in e-banking, which will facilitate simplified operations for NLB's customers in the future.

Regarding the support of payment systems, the majority of activities in 2009 and 2010 were linked to NLB’s successful introduction and integration in the standardized SEPA payment system. The Bank fulfilled and introduced all requirements in a timely manner. By upgrading the direct debit system, developing solutions for the migration of mass payments, beginning the migration of interbank standing orders and supplementing the foreign currency cross-border payment support system and the international rents payment support system, the objectives of simplifying the IT architecture and streamlining IT processes were met.

In order to better manage risks in securities trading, NLB introduced the Kondor + TP system to support trading in derivatives. It also introduced related back-office systems. The Bank also introduced new solution to support custody services for funds management, and thus began to simplify support in the custody segment.

With regard to the IT infrastructure, the Bank established IP-connectivity to all of its branches in 2009, and migrating BA to IP connection that already has and will continue to result in considerable savings in communications, while improving opportunities for monitoring and developing new ATM services. The Bank has introduced a strategy to gradually transition to a common SWIFT infrastructure for all banks in the Group. The Bank carried out an overall system and communication upgrade of all platforms and relational databases. It also upgraded the operating system on the main computer, and upgrading operating system on more than one half of workstations over the last two years.

In 2009 and 2010, the Bank verified and introduced a service-oriented architecture (SOA) development approach, and completed a significant portion of server virtualization. The Bank continued with activities to improve IT processes in 2010 and introduced the internationally recognized COBIT framework with the aim of mitigating operational risks.

The Bank’s IT center maintains the ISO 9001 quality certificate, despite changing assessors after ten years. NLB also maintained a high online availability rate, which stood at 99.87% in annual terms, meaning there were less than 0.02% of unannounced interruptions.