30 Years Banking Innovation on Unisys ClearPath

ASB Marks 30 Years Banking Innovation on Unisys ClearPath

- December 1977 – ASB core retail banking solution on Unisys ClearPath goes live
- ASB continues to adopt new technologies to provide innovative services to customers

ASB and Unisys are celebrating a long and successful 30 year relationship which was established when ASB went live with its core retail banking solution on a Unisys ClearPath mainframe on 27 December 1977.

In a far-sighted move for the time, ASB installed a computer system in 1977 to link its entire network of branches directly to a main computer – a Unisys ClearPath mainframe – enabling customers to update their accounts instantly, regardless of which branch they called into. The ClearPath family of servers and solutions is specifically designed to quickly respond to changing business dynamics and requirements – a Real-Time Infrastructure. Twenty years later, in 1997, ASB was the first bank in Australasia to offer transactional banking via the internet in a secure environment.

ASB started life as New Zealand’s first savings bank over 160 years ago and since then has constantly led the market by delivering innovative banking products and services. This innovation has often been the result of a readiness to adopt new technologies to improve the customer experience not only within the branch network, but also to support transactions outside the Bank using the telephone, EFTPOS and more recently, the internet. Unisys has been a key partner in achieving this over the last 30 years.

“ASB has always been at the forefront of using technology to offer our customers the highest level of service and convenience,” Peter Muggleston, Acting Head of Technology and Operations, ASB. “We needed a flexible and agile partner who could evolve with us to support our changing requirements for new banking products and services with appropriate technology solutions. Working with Unisys as our partner for the past three decades has helped us to achieve these goals time and again – allowing ASB to constantly lift the bar in banking services.”

Since 1977 the ClearPath core banking application has expanded to support 24x7 ATMs, debit cards, point of sale, credit cards, telephone, internet and mobile banking, the contact centre and branches, all on the same Master Control Program (MCP) operating system.

“Today, ASB’s core retail banking solution continues to be at the heart of ASB delivering innovation in New Zealand’s banking market, and we are proud that Unisys ClearPath has remained part of that solution,” said Brett Hodgson, Managing Director Unisys New Zealand.

Unisys history with ASB illustrates the dramatic improvements in the power and performance of technology – the following comparison shows the improvements achieved in the last 25 years:

1982 2007

2 Unisys ClearPath B7800 servers installed ClearPath Libra servers used today

Comprised of 62 boxes of parts Came in a single cabinet
Weighed almost 16 tons Weighs less than a ton
Supported approximately 350 terminals Supports several thousand terminals

ASB and Unisys will mark the success of their relationship at a 30th anniversary celebration lunch attended by many of the team who had been closely associated with the success of the core ASB banking solution in the last 30 years.

ENDS

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