Callataÿ & Wouters, a provider of core banking and multi-channel distribution solutions, has been positioned for the first time as one of the vendors in the Leaders quadrant of Gartner’s 2009 International Retail Core Banking Magic Quadrant report. Having entered as a Challenger in the 2008 report, Callataÿ & Wouters has quickly moved to a Leader position as a result of its strong relationship with SAP, its commitment to promote and accelerate the adoption of SOA as driving member of the Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN) and the consistent, high quality customer experience provided along the entire lifecycle from pre-sales through to operations.

The International Retail Core Banking Magic Quadrant report is an annual analysis of international core banking system vendors and their technologies. It evaluates solutions and their providers not only on their ability to execute against the banking market, but also on their vision for the future. The Leaders quadrant is occupied by vendors that have a strong understanding of the banking market, and most have a proven strategy for disaggregating core banking software functionality into component-based solutions. Vendors in this quadrant score high on both their ability to execute and completeness of vision.

Thaler, Callataÿ & Wouters’ flagship core banking system, is a scalable solution that includes functionality for deposits, loans, securities, treasury and payments as well as multi-channel distribution modules. It is designed to run either as an end-to-end solution, covering the entire range of core banking activities, or on a modular basis to support individual lines of business. Deployed on the SAP NetWeaver tech nology platform, Thaler adopts an enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) offering the ability to integrate with third party solutions, and the ability to add a broad range of features and functionalities. Completely preconfigured and easy to implement, this powerful solution can support a wide range of client prefer ences and investment choices.

Marc De Groote, CEO, Callataÿ & Wouters, comments: “Our position in the Leaders quadrant by Gartner validates our dedication to delivering best-in-class solutions that allow banks to future proof their businesses. Financial institutions have come to realise that core banking systems need to be renewed to meet changing market conditions and so many of these institutions are looking at the right ways to invest. With our customer based partnership approach, commitment to SOA and seamless implementations we are best placed to make banks’ quest for flexibility and scalability successful, in a cost-effective manner, which is clearly a top priority.”