Danish IT service provider Festina Finance strengthens position in pension and life market with dutch branch Leiden, The Danish IT service provider Festina Finance A/S, active in the Dutch market for Life and Pension systems since 2020, has a Dutch branch, Festina Finance B.V. since 17 December 2021.

Festina Finance A/S was founded in 2014 by Morten Schantz, a well-known name in the field of development of IT systems for the pension and insurance market.

The core activity of Festina Finance is the provision of applied software solutions for Pensions, Life Insurance and Banking services. Spearhead for the Dutch market is the Festina Life & Pension platform. This platform is a modern and up-to-date modular life & pension system, that fully supports the new products of the Pension Agreement with modern state-of-the-art cloud-based software, high configurability and 100% STP processing. Due to the open-end architecture, the platform is very easy to fit into customers’ existing IT landscapes.

Strategic choice for the Netherlands

Morten Schantz: "The Pension Agreement is the biggest transition since the start of supplementary pension schemes in the Netherlands. For Festina Finance, this is the reason to strategically choose the Netherlands as the most important international expansion market. The pension transition affects the entire market and in almost all cases means a transition to a new pension administration system.

In the Dutch market with both closed book portfolios/traditional products as well as the new Solidarity and Flexible DC products of the Pension Agreement, there is a need for a distinctive and proven agile, cloud-based IT solution, with good customer/participant communication and efficient implementation.

In Denmark, an analogous pension transition has previously been implemented with products that are very similar to the new Solidarity and Flexible pension schemes. At PensionDanmark, Denmark's largest pension fund with over 800,000 members and 50+ pension plans, our solution has proven itself in practice with operational efficiency and unparalleled scalability, flexibility and speed."

Festina Finance Netherlands
Since its start in the Netherlands in November 2020, Festina Finance has been involved in various IT selection projects at Dutch pension administrators. Within these projects, the specific functionalities for the new pension schemes of the Pension Agreement have been demonstrated in a short time. This development gives Festina Finance a head start in implementation projects. Based on these results, Festina Finance is seen as a serious candidate for possible cooperation.

To underline the strategic choice for the Netherlands, a Dutch branch has been established and the first experienced employees with proven track record have been hired, with the aim of further developing the organization in controlled growth and from 2022, together with Festina Finance Denmark, fully supporting Dutch customers.

Peter Klos, a highly experienced professional in the life and pension sector, has been appointed for further expansion of the organization and business and market development. Together with Jesper Lauritsen, CTO of Festina Finance Denmark, they will lead Festina Finance B.V. In addition, they will contribute managerially and substantively to projects.

Peter Klos: "The establishment of Festina Finance B.V. forms the right basis for further development of the Dutch market. The platform has been developed with an international scope. The structure of the platform, with a generic layer, a Dutch country layer and a customer layer offers great advantages. For the Netherlands, the Dutch requirements for litigation, administration and reporting are central. The generic and Dutch layers are therefore fully applicable for every pension fund or pension administrator. Customers can be intensively involved in the implementation of their own specific customer layer and the migration. This provides additional opportunities in the field of joint development of the platform, knowledge sharing, lead times and managing the customer layer yourself and therefore means efficiency".

The idea of using this structure for a solution of the new system for the Pension Agreement has also been discussed with independent consultants and is seen as promising.

In all projects, Festina Finance therefore wants to work in business partnership with its customers aimed at realizing the common goal, the timely and successful implementation of the Life & Pension platform as a solution for pension administrations in the new Pension Agreement.

In addition to the efforts of its Danish and Dutch specialists, Festina Finance works together with selected Dutch business partners in the field of implementation, data quality, transition/migration and project management.

"From this organization, Festina Finance is a reliable partner with the right Dutch market and business knowledge for the implementation of Festina Life & Pension as a modern IT solution for the Pension Agreement"

Peter Klos
Head of Festina Finance B.V

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Festina Finance

Founded by Morten Schantz, Festina Finance is a Copenhagen-based FinTech company, developing advanced financial software systems for pension administrators, pension funds, insurance companies and banks.

The Festina Finance Life & Pension platform was developed in collaboration with PensionDanmark and was designed from the start for the international life and pension market. The platform is built from a 3-layer model, with a generic layer, a country layer and a customer-specific layer. Within this structure, pension plans can be fully configured, without further software modification or code development.

The system was delivered to PensionDanmark within 2 years within budget and according to schedule and has been fully operational since the summer of 2021. In the Netherlands, Festina Finance introduced the Life & Pension platform in 2020. This platform is a modern and up-to-date life & pension system that fully supports the new Solidarity and Flexible premium scheme for the Dutch market with the latest cloud-based software, high configurability and 100% STP processing.

The system has a powerful Unit-linked module, for a fully transparent and controlled management of DC products. Within the 3-tier structure, pension plans can be fully configured, without further software customization or code development. The system can be expanded with the Festina Finance Money In (collection) and Money Out (excasso) modules.

Within the business solution, all necessary processes for the implementation of the Solidarity and Flexible contract are supported. Festina Life & Pensions supports full integration into the total system landscape of customers by linking with other systems (internal and external) via APIs for efficient front and back-office processes.

Festina Finance Life & Pension meets the existing compliance requirements and supports the adaptation to future changes.

In 2021, Festina Finance was approached by a number of pension administrators for a proof of concept and request for proposal. Within these projects, the development of the Dutch country layer has been realized and the efficiency of the platform has been demonstrated by implementing the first Dutch specific Solidarity and Flexible functionalities and products in a short time.

In addition to these successfully completed projects for possible cooperation, other parties in the pension sector also showed interest in December 2021.

Remaining
Festina Finance has offices in Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Festina Finance has more than 40 customers. Since its first customer in 2014, Festina Finance has grown to more than 80 employees. This growth continues due to the distinctive IT solutions in combination with the proven implementations.

Festina Finance has a very experienced team, most of whom have between 10 – 30 years of experience in the sector. With a track record of successful implementations of life, pension systems and advice software.