First Tennessee Becomes First U.S. Bank to Licence CSC's Celeriti

First Tennessee, a Memphis, Tenn.-based bank subsidiary of First Horizon National Corp. with $26.3 billion in assets, is the first U.S. bank to license technology provider CSC's new Celeriti Customer and Deposits software, CSC announced Wednesday at BAI Retail Delivery.

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 20 — First Tennessee, a Memphis, Tenn.-based bank subsidiary of First Horizon National Corp. with $26.3 billion in assets, is the first U.S. bank to license technology provider CSC's new Celeriti Customer and Deposits software, CSC announced Wednesday at BAI Retail Delivery.

Originally announced in June, Celeriti is a suite of SOA-based software, components and services that offer financial institutions enterprise banking, cards payments and lending platforms. Celeriti components First Tennessee will implement include Web portal, service-oriented architecture business processes and Web services.

"As a part of our overall IT transformation, we expect Celeriti to help us improve our speed to market for many of the system upgrades we're undertaking and to position us for growth with one of the best core banking platforms in the industry," says Bruce Livesay, First Horizon EVP and CIO. "We'll be more flexible and nimble going forward with improved capability to respond quickly to market opportunities.

As part of the project, which Livesay says will be deployed in phases primarily through 2011, First Tennessee will also upgrade its Hogan Core Banking Systems.

"Versus a core banking 'rip and replace,' Celeriti is a natural evolution and next step forward to improve our existing core banking capability," Livesay adds. "It will help us leverage the full potential of Hogan to support all channels via shared services."

Overall, five products comprise the Celeriti suite: Celeriti Customer, Celeriti Deposits, Celeriti Loans, Celeriti Cards and Celeriti Merchant. It's available through a range of options, which CSC says can provide scalability and cost efficiency.

"A customized, low-risk path will guide the transformation of First Tennessee's enterprise banking platform for the future," said John Dickson, president of CSC's Banking and Credit Services Division. "The Celeriti suite is designed for both existing CSC clients and other institutions to create consistency across all delivery channels; speed product introductions and regulatory changes; and gain better insights into their customer actions for improved decision making."

"Core banking renewal is a hot topic these days as banks work to ensure consistency across channels," Livesay adds. "The Celeriti architecture is a perfect fit for our existing Hogan and enterprise services bus environment."