Bank of Africa (BOA) enhances Internet Banking Service with latest Clear2Pay eBanking SaaS Solution

Major Pan-African Bank renews contract and selects Clear2Pay’s Open Payment Framework eBanking solution to enrich its multichannel strategy targeting business and now non-business clients.

Paris, 11 May 2010 – Clear2Pay, the international technology provider of next generation payment solutions for financial institutions today announced that the BANK OF AFRICA (BOA) group, which is one of Africa’s largest banks with more than 700 000 bank accounts in 12 African countries and France, will be using its software as a service (SaaS) ebanking solution, B-Web to relaunch its online banking service. B-Web will enable BOA to enrich its current site with new value added services, support the faster deployment of services as the bank opens new branch offices and provide the flexibility for new functionality and features.

The development of ebanking services is part of the group strategy to offer its clients a broader variety of functionalities and more autonomy in dealing with their accounts online. This will free BOA employees from low value added tasks and allow them to concentrate on helping clients with complex enquiries and services.

This year, as part of its multi-channel strategy, the BOA group wants to give its Internet banking a stronger role, so they required an effective internet banking software solution that combined flexibility, high functionality and upgradability while avoiding technical constraints. The bank wants to widen access to its internet banking facility and enable its clients - today around 5000 clients, mostly professionals but soon any of BOA’s customers  - to easily check their account information, manage operations from abroad (e.g. bank transfer instructions) and  manage their accounts generally.

BOA chose Clear2Pay’s B-Web solution, SaaS mode (Software as a Service) because it met these and other requirements and would not impact their existing IT infrastructure. The Pan-African group wanted this solution to be hosted and maintained directly by the provider as a guarantee of autonomy, security and cost reduction.

Based on a contract signed at the end of 2009, the project will start in 2010 with the implementation of a pilot. After a testing stage of a few months, the SaaS-based solution will be deployed across all the BOA branches starting by the end of 2010. The project will be managed by the BOA group team who will coordinate the computing services, consultancy and training. Clear2Pay will be responsible for deploying the solutions, training administrators in each country and the testing of the new B-Web interface.

Nicolas Métivier, Clear2Pay General Manager for France, Middle East and Africa, said: "We’re delighted to be renewing our relationship with the Bank of Africa group. The underlying SOA technology of the OPF eBanking offering, combined with the on-the-ground expertise of our teams is going to enable the deployment of an innovative, flexible and relevant solution for this major player in the African continent."

Paul Derreumeaux, Bank of Africa Group Chairman concludes: "As the spearhead of our aggressive ebanking strategy for professionals, our new version of Internet Banking should allow us to attract new customers who want to manage their bank accounts whenever and wherever they want to."

_{About BANK OF AFRICA Group
Founded in 1982, the Bank of Africa group is one of the fastest growing banking groups in Sub-Saharan Africa, through the creation of the BANK OF AFRICA – MALI. The BOA group embodies the vision of a Pan-African bank, accessible to everyone, involved in the economic development and with a strong presence in the African equity capital. After a steady development in the Economic and Monetary West African zone (UEMOA), the group expanded its operations in the Indian Ocean and the East African regions from 1999.  Today, the group has more than 3000 employees, employed by 22 organizations, including 12commercial banks, a real estate investment bank, three leasing companies, one broking company, two investment companies, one asset management company and one financial company. The Group manages approximately 700 000 bank accounts in the African countries where it is implemented: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Senegal, Tanzania and DRC and recently In France. The BOA group is backed up by powerful institutional partners, such as Proparco, SFI, BOAD, FMO, BIO and a strategic banking partner, BMCE Bank. On June 30th 2009, the group put up a consolidated balance sheet of about €2.3 billion and a final net profit of €29.2 million. In 2010, the Group continues its growth and development, thanks to an important increase of its holding society capital, which will be doubled by 2012 to reach €80.6 million. More info on: www.bank-of-africa.net}

_{About Clear2Pay
Clear2Pay is an innovative financial technology company focused on delivering globally applicable solutions for secure, timely electronic payments. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the company facilitates banks and financial organizations in their provision of payments services. Clear2Pay's technology helps to reduce transactions processing costs, and to deliver new, compelling payment services in a competitive way. Clear2Pay's payment solutions offer organisations easy, branded ways for their customers to pay online: from complex trade-supporting business-to-business environments, through e-commerce applications, to retail payments and remittance services across the widest possible choice of channels.  Functions embrace payments origination, reporting, linkage with back-office processing systems, clearing, netting and settlement. In addition, the company markets Integri test tools for end-to-end validation of payment, ticketing and mobile applications. Clients include global and major regional financial institutions such as ING, Banco Santander, Crédit Agricole, VISA, MasterCard, BNP Paribas, The Federal Reserve, PBS (Denmark), The People Bank of China (PBOC), Bank of East Asia, ANZ and Commonwealth Bank. Clear2Pay operates out of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, Senegal, United States, Australia, China, Malaysia and Singapore and currently employs over 500 staff. For more information, please visit www.clear2pay.com.}

_{Press contacts}

_{Clear2Pay
Conny Dorrestijn
VP Marketing & Communication Clear2Pay NV  
E conny.dorrestijn@clear2pay.com
M +31 651 057201}

_{Fréderique Saint-Denis
VP Marketing, Clear2Pay France
E frederique.saintdenis@clear2pay.com
M 06 89 13 81 53}

_{General secretary Groupe BANK OF AFRICA
E scarrer@boaholding.com}

_{Marketing Department BOA
Alfa Barry
E abarry@boaholding.com et
T + (223) 20 29 31 56}

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