The Co-operative Bank has signed a five-year managed services deal to reduce the number of IT suppliers in its mortgage division.

The bank already uses vendor TietoEnator’s systems for mortgage administration and debt collection and the new deal will also give software and hardware support.

David Dunlop, head of mortgage operations at Co-operative Bank, says the company wants to improve visibility of IT costs through clear pricing structure, strict service level agreements and 24-hour support.

‘We were hosting TietoEnator’s software on our own hardware and we had to deal with different parties to develop that. Sometimes it was not clear whether it was a hardware or software issue. Using one supplier for everything deals with that problem,’ he said.

Dunlop says moving the software from local servers to the new system enabled a smoother transition.

‘We have the servers and the communication lines in place and we expect the system to be finished by July,’ he said.

The infrastructure will include encrypted routers, firewalls and a dedicated secure line for the company’s data.

The bank also wants to install TietoEnator’s mortgage sales portal to offer customers an online mortgage service.