Bank11 Goes Live with Sword Apak

Bank11, a fast growing vehicle finance provider in Germany, has gone live with Sword Apak’s wholesale finance system, WFS. The new implementation is expected to help Bank11 expand its dealer finance operation by strengthening existing dealer relationships as well as supporting plans to win new business in the German auto-finance industry.

WFS was implemented at Bank11 within six months to provide a future proof and flexible wholesale funding solution, which is hosted from Sword Apak’s data centre based in Frankfurt. With comprehensive ‘Dealer Self Service’ functionality in WFS, Bank11 can enable its dealers to manage their floorplan accounts, make new and used vehicle funding requests, payoff existing loans and view payment history. Embedded ‘User Configurability’ in the application also means Bank11 users have greater control over managing system changes in WFS, reducing the requirement for more protracted and costly software development.

André Thomas, IT Director at Bank11, sees the new implementation as an important step forward in helping the bank to achieve its strategic business objectives. "We selected Sword Apak because of our confidence in their ability, professionalism and unrivalled experience of delivering and supporting wholesale finance systems. WFS has empowered us to provide a significantly improved level of customer service to our dealers, who have been impressed with the depth and breadth of functionality available in the software, as well as the overall user experience.” Mr. Thomas added, "In our view, Sword Apak’s WFS system has become the benchmark for wholesale finance solutions.”

Working in partnership with Bank11’s banking IT specialist, GAD, was essential to the project’s success so that WFS would meet local market requirements. GAD provides the banking and IT infrastructure to over 400 banks in Germany including Bank11. Sword Apak’s WFS system was successfully integrated with GAD’s core banking system, Bank21, for dealer payment processing and accounting. An interface to vehicle data experts, DAT, was also implemented, providing easy data entry for the dealer as well as real-time valuations of the asset.

James Powell, Sales Director for Sword Apak, recognises the importance of the company’s latest customer win. "It has been a pleasure working with Bank11’s team and we are delighted that the project has gone so well. Our latest implementation represents another significant milestone for Sword Apak having met the primary market requirements for supporting banks’ local dealer finance operations in Germany. With WFS, we believe Bank11 is well placed to offer a complete wholesale funding facility that will help the bank to rapidly grow its auto finance business.”

WFS is provided to Bank11 on an ASP basis and is hosted from Sword Apak’s data centre located in Frankfurt. The purpose built facility is available 24x7x365 and has been accredited with both ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certifications.

Notes to Editor

About Sword Apak

Sword Apak (part of the SWORD GROUP NYSE Euronext: FR0004180578 SWP) has over 30 years’ experience of providing specialist Wholesale Floorplanning solutions. Supporting dealers in more than 20 countries, Sword Apak is recognised as a worldwide market leader in systems for the automotive and equipment based finance sector.