AZL and Festina Finance sign a long-term license agreement
PRESS RELEASE
Heerlen, Wednesday, October 11, 2023
AZL and Festina Finance have ratified their cooperation by signing a long-term license agreement. This establishes the Danish FinTech company as the cooperation partner for pension and unit-linked administration in AZL's new IT landscape.
Results
Earlier, AZL and Festina Finance signed a letter of intent. “We have already taken many steps over the past year,” indicates Alexander Baas, Director of Technology & Transformation at AZL.“ Behind the scenes, we have worked intensively to integrate the Festina Finance software into our new IT landscape, and the first trial migration has been carried out. We also tested whether the new system safeguards all functionalities of the updated product model, which implements the Future Pensions Act (Wet toekomst Pensioenen, Wtp). Of course, the latest legal changes were also included in the software to be developed and shared planning. This shows our joint commitment to a successful cooperation,” Baas said.
Looking ahead
Looking ahead, 2024 will, of course, be an important year. “That's when the Festina Finance Life & Pension software will be delivered for our first funds, which will transition to a new 'Solidarity Premium' scheme. The functionality for the 'Flexible Premium Scheme' will also be delivered next year. In addition, with a joint schedule, we will deliver further functionalities every quarter, with the aim of being able to implement the new regulations of our first clients who are transitioning to the Wtp completely in Festina Finance by January 1, 2025,” explains Baas.
Teamwork and trust
An important aspect of this collaboration is teamwork and mutual trust. “We have taken significant steps together with Festina Finance in a short time to build trust for a successful future collaboration,” said AZL's Director of Technology & Transformation. “The success of this partnership also hinges on relationships and implementations with our other vendors. It is essential that the entire chain, including our other partners, functions smoothly to ensure a successful transition to the updated pension system and optimal support for participants and employers.”
From left: Monique Sueters CEO at AZL, Morten Schantz Founder at Festina Finance and Jos Gubbels CFO at AZL, signing the license agreement
Leading edge
Morten Schantz, founder and chairman of the board of Festina Finance, is pleased with the signing of the contract and sees many advantages in working with AZL. “Festina Finance's Life & Pension system is state-of-the-art, highly sophisticated and has a modular structure in three layers, making scaling up and automation easy. The system can handle the new laws and regulations and supports solidarity and flexible premium schemes as well as schemes in the nFTK.”
AZL and Festina Finance are convinced of the quality of this system and its successful implementation in AZL's overall IT landscape. It is a state-of-the-art system that gives AZL a huge edge in the Dutch pension market.
About AZL
For over 55 years, AZL has provided administration and advice to dozens of pension funds for a total of some 1.3 million participants. Pension funds, employers and their employees strive for an optimal and future-proof collective pension. AZL makes this shared aspiration possible. In the rapidly changing pension landscape, cooperation is the key. Because together you can do more, learn from each other and share costs and risks. This benefits everyone. Thanks to our deep-rooted knowledge of pension matters and a wealth of experience, we reliably implement dozens of unique pension schemes. By working intensively with diverse clients to find answers to their specific questions, we are the experts in dealing with change. Through its partnership with NN Group, AZL is excellently positioned to provide all possible pension solutions, now and for the future.
For more information, images and interview requests, please contact:
Denis Geuenich
AZL Marketing & Corporate Communications Department
E-mail: communicatie@azl.eu
Tel: +31 (0)6 21 65 47 71
About Festina Finance and its software solutions
Festina Finance, founded by Morten Schantz, is a leading Danish fintech company developing advanced financial software systems for pension administrators, pension funds, insurance companies and banks. The two main products are the Festina Finance Life and Pension Platform and the Advisor.
Festina Finance has more than 120 employees with 10 – 30 years of experience within the sector.
The Life and Pension Platform
The Festina Finance Life and Pension Platform is a leading solution for Policy administration platform for pensions, a suite of connected systems for handling market-based interest products and G82 products.
A cloud-based solution enabling the calculation of more than 1 million policies in less than 15 minutes
The solution is divided into components, which means that it can handle either payments in and out or unit link as separate solutions.
The Life and Pension Platform was originally developed and delivered to Pension Danmark in 2021 and is currently being implemented at AP Pension in Denmark. In addition, implementation projects are ongoing with APG and AZL in The Netherlands. With APG and AZL onboard, Festina will be the market leader in The Netherlands and serve more than 6 million end-customers.
For more information, images and interview requests, please contact:
Peter Klos
Head of Festina Finance Netherlands
Email: pk@festinafinance.com
Tel: +31 (0)6 14 59 53 99
