Subcategory: Blog

AZL and Festina Finance sign a long-term license agreement

Posted on October 11, 2023 by - News, Press Release

AZL and Festina after signing the 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.”

AZL and Festina Finance signing

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

Netcompany has acquired a 20% stake in Festina Finance

Posted on September 7, 2023 by - News, Press Release

Netcompany's headquarter in Copenhagen

Netcompany acquires a 20% stake in leading FinTech company to form a strategic partnership

Copenhagen, September 7, 2023:

Netcompany today acquired a 20% stake in the Danish based Festina Finance – a leading provider of software for the Life and Pension industry with a customer base in Denmark and the Netherlands. The strategic investment will accelerate the entry into new markets for Festina Finance and enhance Netcompany´s offering into the Financial Services Industry significantly.

Customers include large life pension companies like Pension Denmark, AP Pension and SDC in Denmark and APG and AZL in the Netherlands.

In addition, Festina Finance offers a “state-of-the-art” software solution used for the advisory role in banks. Customers on that platform more than 20 member banks in Denmark, as well as a few building societies in the UK.

The strategic investment in Festina Finance will significantly broaden Netcompany´s offering and competences within the Financial Services Industry to cover both insurance, life pension and banking in line with the strategy and ambition to increase presence in that sector further. The two solutions from Festina Finance can be enhanced with current Netcompany platform solutions such as Pulse, Amplio, Ami and DX4B, and thereby increase customer value substantially.

The partnership will add further security to customers of large-scale IT projects by utilising Netcompany´s capabilities and track record in managing and implementing large and complex IT solutions in time and at budget.

André Rogaczewski, CEO and Co-founder of Netcompany, says:

“I am excited that Festina Finance joins forces with the Netcompany Group. Festina Finance has proven to be able to develop scalable software solutions that can be implemented in multiple countries. The large-scale implementation projects that these solutions often require are a perfect match for Netcompany´s implementation capabilities, and we are certain that this investment will accelerate our growth in the Financial Services Industry throughout Europe significantly.”

Morten Schantz, Founder of Festina Finance, says:

“With the partnership that we are entering into with Netcompany we get to focus on what we do best – develop software solutions, while Netcompany gets to do what they do best – implement complex and mission critical IT solutions. To me that is a true “win-win” that will enable Festina Finance to accelerate its growth and together with Netcompany enter new markets.”

The investment of DKK 107m – all paid in cash - will not impact Netcompany´s financial guidance for 2023. Leverage will be increased by around 0.1-0.2x from the investment. Morten Schantz and the current executive management team will continue their roles in Festina Finance.

For media inquiries or more information, please contact:

Mikael Braagaard, CEO of Festina Finance: mikael@festinafinance.com +45 26807045 David Tarp, head of PR and Public Affairs, Netcompany: dtarp@netcompany.com +45 24852453

About Netcompany and its platforms

Netcompany was founded by André Rogaczewski and Claus Jørgensen in 2000 with the ambition to become a market leader within digitalisation in both the public and private segments in Denmark. In 2015 this ambition was enhanced to become a Northern European market leader and a presence was established in Norway, the UK and the Netherlands.

In 2018 Netcompany Group was introduced to the Copenhagen Stock Exchange as a Unicorn and in 2021 Netcompany Group acquired Intrasoft S.A with strong presence in both the EU and Greece and enhanced its ambition to become European market leader.

Today Netcompany Group is active in more than 10 countries and employs close to 8.000 staff.

Netcompany Group Platform offerings:

  • AMI - a platform for document handling, electronic mailbox, and communication with customers.
  • Amplio - a case management system platform based on leading case management systems delivered to multiple government entities in Denmark.
  • Pulse – real time data access platform based on the solution build for and implemented in Copenhagen Airport.
  • DX4B –is a standardized, modern, and future proof, cloud-based banking and finance solution, utilizing a revolutionary banking technology framework that standardizes and simplifies the overall banking architecture.
  • Airhart – a leading data driven digital platform for Airports developed together with Copenhagen Airport through the joint venture “Smarter Airport”. The platform is live in Copenhagen Airport.
  • Ermis – a leading solution for handling all aspects of customs in compliance with the MAPS program launched by the EU. Currently implemented in several countries within the EU.
  • NC Tax – a leading solution for managing all aspects of tax management with tax ministries and departments for European countries.
  • PERSEUS - a leading solution for social security management implemented in several countries within and outside Europe.

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About Festina Finance and its software solutions

Festina Finance, founded by Morten Schantz, is a leading Danish fin-tech 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. Revenue in 2022 was close to DKK 100m.

Festina Finance Platform offerings:

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 as well as G82 products
  • A cloud-based solution enabling 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 market leaders in The Netherlands and serve more than 6 million end-customers.

The Advisor Platform

  • A complete advisory platform, enables advice for retirement planning, wealth management, investments, mortgages and loans – e.g., banks use it as the foundation for issuing loans and credits

The Advisor product was first implemented for SDC and has later been implemented by customers such as PensionDanmark and PFA.