VIENNA, October 17, 2024 — Kyndryl (NYSE: KD), the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, and Austria’s Erste Digital, IT partner for Erste Group Bank AG (WBAG: EBS), one of the largest financial services providers in Central and Eastern Europe, have announced a five-year agreement to help modernize Erste Digital’s mainframe environment. Kyndryl will apply its mainframe consulting expertise to help Erste Digital enhance the banking experience for customers, improve its resiliency and efficiency, and optimize its operations, positioning the company to capitalize on a digital AI future. 

Erste Digital is part of Erste Group, which has more than 1,900 branches and over 45,000 employees. With top-notch technology, Erste Digital and its 2,000 IT experts drive the realization of Erste Group’s vision: To provide human banking in digital times, and to promote financial health for over 16 million customers in the CEE region.

"In this rapidly evolving and digitizing landscape, our mission is to deliver cutting-edge IT services in the most straightforward and impactful way. To continue to grow and be able to further leverage new technologies, we engaged Kyndryl to support us on our modernization journey,” said Ekkehard Preis, Managing Director, Erste Digital.

As part of the project, Kyndryl will migrate Erste Digital’s mainframe infrastructure from the current z15 to the more advanced z16 platform. This is expected to deliver better performance, increased flexibility and a reduced environmental footprint. The transformation will optimize Erste Digital’s current operations and provide a robust foundation for future growth.

“Across industries, businesses are looking to modernize their mainframe environments in an increasingly hybrid cloud world. CIOs value mainframes for their security, reliability and performance, but they also seek the flexibility and innovation offered by the cloud," said Xerxes Cooper, President of Kyndryl Strategic Markets. "With strong expertise and skills in both mainframe and cloud, Kyndryl is well positioned to help Erste Digital manage its IT transformation and simultaneously drive growth.” 

Kyndryl Consult will support Erste Digital in modernizing and simplifying its mainframe estate and optimizing application workloads. The z16, with its energy-efficient footprint, offers up to 25% better core engine throughput performance compared to the z15. Its green architecture, advanced compilers and energy-efficient cooling technology will enhance energy performance. 

“IT modernization is essential for businesses running mission-critical applications on mainframes, ensuring these systems become future-proof and AI-ready,” said Maria Kirschner, Vice President & Managing Director of Kyndryl Alps. “We are delighted to continue working with Erste Digital, which is at the forefront of banking innovation, using the latest IT technologies to improve financial services across Central and Eastern Europe and setting new standards for the industry.”

About Kyndryl
Kyndryl (NYSE: KD) is the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, serving thousands of enterprise customers in more than 60 countries. The company designs, builds, manages and modernizes the complex, mission-critical information systems that the world depends on every day. For more information, visit www.kyndryl.com.

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