Bankinter to Launch Europe's First Multimodal Service

Market Wire, June, 2005

Bankinter (Madrid: BKT), the leading Internet bank and brokerage firm in Spain; Kirusa, the leading provider of multimodal solutions enabling mobile applications delivery; and Internet Systems, a well-known systems integrator in the Spanish and Portuguese market, announced that Bankinter has signed a strategic agreement to develop a multimodal interface for their applications using Kirusa's multimodal technology.

The first such application, called the multimodal broker, will allow the bank's brokerage customers to manage their brokerage accounts, and to do brokerage transactions from their mobile phones by speaking into the phone in Spanish, and seeing the results on their screen. For example, a user can say "VENDER 200 ACCIONES DE REPSOL" (sell 200 shares of Repsol), and see the stock transaction form on the screen filled in with the words "200" and "Repsol." A user searching for information on Repsol can speak "EVOLUCIÓN PRECIO DE REPSOL" (price history of Repsol), and the price graph for Repsol appears on the screen, reducing the search from four clicks and 20 seconds to one click and 3 seconds.

Under terms of the agreement, the Kirusa Multimodal solution has been delivered and deployed at Bankinter, and has been integrated with Loquendo's speech technology. Bankinter is using a Java API to develop the "multimodal broker" application. The application will be available to all customers in Spain, on several Java-based handsets over the mobile networks of Vodafone Spain, Telefonica Moviles, and Amena. Internet Systems is reselling the platform, and providing the systems integration and support services to Bankinter.

Bankinter made the decision to launch the "multimodal broker" service after extensive tests that showed widespread customer demand and enthusiastic support for a multimodal interface to alleviate the usability barrier for customers of the bank's mobile applications. This, and subsequent applications, will make it easier for the bank's customers to transact business over the mobile channel, as the mobile phone is increasingly integrated into the Spanish customer's lifestyle.

"Our customers want the flexibility to get financial information, and to transact business from their mobile phones, but do not like the current click-click and triple tapping interface," said Jesus Marquina, Chief Information Officer of Bankinter. "We strongly believe that offering them the choice of voice-enabled search, and of entering information by speaking while seeing the results on the screen, will further increase the number of completed self-care transactions, and improve customer satisfaction." He continued, "We wanted a multimodal platform that was robust, standards compliant, that could scale to all our customers and all our mobile applications, and that could add multimodal support to Java applications as well as to .NET Compact Framework and to web-based applications accessed through a browser. After extensive testing and evaluation, we find the Kirusa platform to be the most advanced, scalable, and flexible in the market."

"Our partnership with Internet Systems allows us to deliver a solution that meets the needs of Bankinter and its customers, and gives us an incredible entrée into the Spanish market," said Dr. Inderpal Singh Mumick, CEO and founder of Kirusa. "Multimodal interfaces increase the adoption rate of mobile applications, especially those involving search, messaging, form filling, and customer care. As an early adopter of multimodal solutions, Bankinter is a key strategic customer of Kirusa in driving adoption of multimodal solutions amongst European service providers."

"Kirusa has the broadest and most robust multimodal offer, with the features required by the Spanish market. In addition to supporting Web-based and downloaded applications, Kirusa can deliver cutting-edge capabilities that add voice to SMS applications," said CEO Alfredo Perez of Internet Systems.

About Bankinter

Bankinter S.A is a multichannel bank that provides a broad range of relation and financial operation possibilities to its customers. It pioneered in Spain the use of alternative channels such as telephone, Internet and, now, mobile terminals, and is the market leader in the use of each one of these remote banking systems. Some of its strengths include its service quality, the constant innovation in products and channels and state-of-the-art technology. For more information about Bankinter, please visit http://www.ebankinter.com

About Kirusa

Kirusa, Inc. is a multimodal solutions company that has developed industry-leading multimodal technology (with several patents pending) for the delivery of applications using multimodal interfaces. This next generation of wireless technology allows users to customize the presentation of information on wireless devices by either alternating, or simultaneously receiving information through visual and voice interfaces. Kirusa develops the unique Kirusa Voice SMS multimodal application, multimodal search applications, and supports third-party developers of multimodal applications. Kirusa's customers include the world's leading telecom carriers and enterprises. Kirusa is headquartered in Edison, New Jersey, and was founded by telecom and Internet industry veterans from AT&T, Lucent and Vodafone Airtouch. For more information about Kirusa, please call its headquarters at 1 (732) 623-2118 or visit www.kirusa.com.