After three years of collaborative work on interbank and clearing systems, French IT services companies Atos SA and Steria SA have decided to form a 60/40 joint venture, Diamis SA, dedicated exclusively to this area of business.
The direction of the finance division of Atos Integration, Aymeri Boitreaud, who will also be president of the new company, explained that DiamisÆ creation is designed to take the ownersÆ joint efforts in the French market onto the European scale. This will give them the clout to compete with the likes of Cap Gemini, Logica and Sema for interbanking systems business.
The sector Diamis will work in is characterized by mission-critical, networked systems, to which it says suppliers also need to bring a knowledge of payment skills and risk management, helping customers reduce settlement costs and minimize risks by understanding all aspects of treasury management.
The two companiesÆ collaboration in this area came about as the result of a build-and-run contract for the French banksÆ CRI interbank settlement center, which came online early last year. For the central platform on which CRI operates, Atos acted as general contractor and Steria contributed its Stelink interbank communications software.
Now, Boitreaud explained, Diamis will be working to connect banks to a similar type of center for euro clearing, belonging to the European BanksÆ Association out of Brussels. The company is already preparing a link to the German center, known as EAF2, and may possibly do the same for the UKÆs Eurochaps system.
The idea, he explained, is to move toward the management of multiple channels for settlements, making it possible to better monitor risks and treasury flows. Diamis will be the prime contractor for such business, outsourcing the ærunÆ part of the contract to the two parent companies on a pre-arranged basis. The joint venture itself starts life with some 50 employees, with Boitreaud as its president and Rachid Boukais from Steria as CEO.
The sector of Atos from which the Diamis personnel will be drawn is Atos Integration, the groupÆs other three business areas being: Atos Transaction Processing Services, providing card processing for banks and major retail chains, callcenters and so on; Atos Outsourcing; and Atos Electronic Commerce Services.
