Tapiola Bank

Tapiola Bank Ltd is a modern bank, serving the customers over the Internet, by phone or at offices throughout Finland. At the early stage the bank is offering services mainly to Tapiola’s private household customers. Corporations are served by the insurance companies of the Tapiola Group. Tapiola Bank is owned by the other companies of the Tapiola Group, thus also owned by the policyholders.

As a new business division of Finland’s Tapiola Group, Tapiola Bank had very specific requirements for the archival storage of accounting and transaction records. Its archive strategy needed to comply with banking regulations while meeting internal operational and budget considerations.

Finland-based Internet bank Tapiola has since its foundation in 2002 been able to position itself as a highly competitive player in the Finnish banking market. Created as a supplementary service to parent company Tapiola Group’s customers, it has since become a success among financial service consumers in general. Through a strategy of low-cost, time-efficient services and the provision of a variety of channels for communicating with customers, the bank has been able to grow at an estimated 60% yearly. Tapiola Bank differentiates itself from competitors by operating outside the classic brick and mortar branch setting while still delivering face-to-face on-location service. The combination of low-cost online banking and on-demand personal advisory services is, according to Tapiola, an important reason for their success, as it offers customers the best of two worlds.

One key to the success of the Tapiola Group is Tapiola Data, the Bank’s internal IT division, which is responsible for the technology infrastructure needs of the company’s 3,000 employees and their customers. Using a combination of internal resources and outsourced services, Tapiola Data designed and implemented — and now supports — a storage strategy for the Tapiola Bank.