GBST (ASX:GBT), a global provider of technology solutions to the financial services industry, today announced that it has signed a long term contract with AEGON, an international provider of pensions, investments and protection.
The contract will see the implementation of Composer® and ComposerWeb™, GBST’s Wealth Management’s flagship SIPP and wrap solutions, ensuring that AEGON not only have the systems in place to enhance some of its existing products but also support its new strategic focus on the ‘at retirement’ and ‘workplace savings’ markets and post RDR offerings.
AEGON employs 28 thousand employees worldwide and 40 million customers in the Americas, Europe and Asia. AEGON‘s revenue generating investments totalled EUR 388 billion at 31 March 2010. In the UK AEGON offers pensions, life insurance, asset management and financial advice to around two million customers. AEGON UK has assets under administration of £53.6 billion and employs approximately 4,500 staff.
Andy Marchant, Marketing Director at AEGON UK, said “We selected GBST after a rigorous selection process. GBST’s Composer® solution will support our new focused strategy for our UK business, enabling us to develop our proposition, automate and streamline our processes and improve our efficiency.
“With the market continuing to change, we must be able to respond quickly, so functionality and system flexibility were key considerations. Equally, we needed the support of an experienced partner such as GBST, with a strong reputation for delivering world class solutions-we look forward to working closely with GBST.
This is another significant step forward as we move to deliver our new UK strategy and will provide us with the right IT infrastructure to support our existing and future propositions in this market.”
Composer® is a comprehensive and flexible Administration and Investment Platform solution for master trusts, wraps, unit trusts, ISAs, OEICs, SIPPs, superannuation, pension and provident funds. Designed as a single, client centric application, Composer®’s architecture meets the demanding requirements of platform providers and fund managers by providing business rule driven functionality to support legislative change, flexible administration procedures and innovative product design. The ability to support multiple distribution channels such as B2C, B2B, Retail, Corporate, Bancassure and Third Party is also a core design principle within the solution.
Stephen Lake, CEO for GBST commented ““This is another significant step forward in our UK growth and are delighted to win this substantial contract with AEGON. It demonstrates the strength of GBST’s R&D program with Composer® uniquely placed to capitalise on the changes and opportunities in the UK financial services market as a result of the Retail Distribution Review.
“Robert DeDominicis, CEO for GBST Wealth Management added: “The project will not only deliver improved management processes and efficiency but also ensure AEGON UK will have a post RDR compliant system from which they will be able to launch new propositions into 2012 and beyond.
“We are extremely pleased to welcome another new client to our expanding UK Client list and look forward to working with AEGON to deliver not only this project but also on their longer term strategy” said DeDominicis.
Posted in: Wealth Management Administration
