MEPS Selects IBM to Support Interbank GIRO Growth

KUALA LUMPUR, February 19 2009 - Malaysian Electronic Payment System (1997) Sdn Bhd (MEPS) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced the completion of MEPS mainframe upgrade to IBM System z9 Business Class (BC) which will enable MEPS to create an advanced and smarter Information Technology (IT) environment to cater for its explosive growth for one of its core services, Interbank GIRO (MEPS IBG).

MEPS IBG is an interbank funds transfer service that facilitates payments and collections through the exchange of digitized transactions between banks.

Under the agreement signed early last year, IBM provided MEPS with System z9 BC for MEPS IBG’s production and disaster recovery sites. The mainframe is connected to IBM System Storage DS 6800 and Tape Solution 1120. The IBM storage and tape solution will provide MEPS with high availability, continuous operations, and data can be quickly recovered in the event of any disaster.

MEPS has invested approximately RM 4.35 million (USD 1.18 million) in the total IBM solutions.

The IBM solution will provide more than three times the bandwidth previously available to MEPS. This higher bandwidth will enable MEPS to focus on reducing overall business costs while consolidating and simplifying its IT management. It will also enable MEPS to develop new product features as well as provide faster and more efficient delivery to customers.

Dato' Mohd Hata Robani, Group Managing Director of MEPS said, “We are confident that this upgrade will further improve MEPS’ processing capability and provide the capacity to accommodate the accelerated growth in IBG transactions. IBM Systems provides more stability and bandwidth as well as security for enhancement initiatives in customer service quality.”

“Over the last three years, MEPS IBG has experienced a compounded growth rate of 52% and as of December 2008, over 36 million transactions worth approximately RM90 billion were processed. MEPS is a strong supporter of the Government’s national agenda of migrating from paper-based payment to electronic payment. With more organizations and government agencies pushing and promoting the e-Payment, MEPS IBG volume is expected to continue to grow aggressively,” Dato’ Mohd Hata added.

IBM Global Technology Services successfully implemented all hardware setup and installation services for both production and disaster recovery sites without interruptions.

IBM Malaysia’s managing director, Ou Shian Waei said, “With energy costs rising, and power density of new electronics increasing, power-efficient devices are increasing in importance with companies like MEPS. We provided the relevant value propositions that have real short-term and long-term impact on MEPS’ business and help them to realize their goals with our end-to-end products and services. ”