Diebold Cracks Barriers in Iceland

NORTH CANTON, Ohio, Feb. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Diebold, Incorporated has made a major business breakthrough at four Icelandic banks. A global leader in the integration of self-service and security solutions, Diebold recently installed a software solution on competitive equipment throughout the country. The solution was developed using Diebold's Agilis Power(R) software toolkit. Automated teller machines (ATMs) manufactured by NCR are now powered by Diebold terminal software at Iceland's Landsbanki, Kauphthing Bank, Islandsbanki and the Savings Bank Datacenter. Agilis Power is the first Diebold ATM product to be used in Iceland.

Diebold's Agilis Power is part of its Agilis(R) family of ATM software. Agilis is an open, cross-vendor software platform that allows multiple vendors' terminals and their respective technologies to co-exist. Agilis Power is a toolkit that software engineers can use to develop custom applications. The flexibility of Agilis allows Diebold to meet the specific and individual needs of each financial institution. Hugur, the software house that develops all Icelandic ATM applications, used Agilis Power to develop a custom application that will run on approximately 250 NCR terminals throughout the country. The addition of Agilis also enabled the banks to make their ATMs compliant with EuropayMasterCardVisa (EMV).

Hans Hendriks, territory manager of Diebold Netherlands and Nordics, said the Diebold team's quick response to solving problems, along with the versatility of Agilis Power, led to the selection.

"During a four-day testing period on Agilis Power's cross-vendor proof-of- concept, Diebold successfully performed all of the requested operations on both NCR and Diebold's Opteva terminals," Hendriks said.

Previously, Icelandic banks operated in an NCR hardware and software environment. Diebold has now broken into this market, enabling Icelandic banks to run their future ATM applications based on Diebold's Agilis Power platform.

Magnus Gudmundsson, Hugur's director of financial solutions, said the company was particularly impressed by Agilis Power's excellent performance.

"After a thorough comparison of our options, we opted for Agilis Power," Gudmundsson said. "The decision was based on the architectural aspects of Agilis Power, but even more so on Diebold's demonstrated ability to deliver a robust framework and provide excellent support for our development team."

Hugur's software application using the Agilis Power toolkit enables ATMs to perform withdrawals, fast-cash transactions, inquiries, communications to their respective financial institutions, funds transfers, cell phone top-ups and more. Diebold and Hugur plan to provide joint resources for other development assignments throughout Europe.

"This project demonstrates what Agilis Power can do," Hendriks said. "A professional software developer can use Agilis Power to build an application with the assurance that it will be hardware independent and EMV compliant. The project shows that Diebold has the products and the expertise to make it easier to own and operate ATMs - anywhere in the world."

About Diebold

Diebold, Incorporated is a global leader in providing integrated self- service delivery systems, security and services. Diebold employs more than 14,000 associates with representation in nearly 90 countries worldwide and is headquartered in North Canton, Ohio, USA. Diebold reported revenue of $2.4 billion in 2004 and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "DBD." For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.diebold.com/ .

About Hugur

Hugur is an Icelandic solution provider and ISV with more than 20 years of experience developing retail banking solutions. A subsidiary of Kogun Group, Hugur is included in the group's listing on the Icelandic Stock Exchange under the symbol "KOGN." The Kogun group reported revenue of $22 million in the first half of 2004. For more information, visit the Kogun Web site at http://www.kogun.com/ .