Andersen Consulting's Financial Services Industry Practice Revenues Jump 23 Percent in 1996.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 1997--Andersen Consulting's Financial Services Industry (FSI) practice net revenues rose 23 percent during 1996, to $1.38 billion, the global management and technology consulting firm announced today. Growth in the worldwide FSI practice in 1996 was not limited to a specific geographic region: Europe/Middle East/Africa/India saw a 19 percent revenue increase; Asia/Pacific experienced a 23 percent revenue increase; and the Americas posted very strong growth with a 27 percent rise. In the past four years, the FSI practice has more than doubled its revenues.

"Andersen Consulting is thriving because we are very focused on helping our clients to deliver greater value to their customers, and through such efforts, increased value to their shareholders," said George T. Shaheen, Andersen Consulting's worldwide managing partner. "Our ability to develop and deliver inventive solutions is fueling our vigorous growth." The firm's overall 1996 net revenues climbed 26 percent over 1995, to $5.3 billion.

"We are extremely pleased with this past year's results," says John C. Skerritt, worldwide managing partner for Andersen Consulting's Financial Services Industry practice. "Our continued success within the financial services industry demonstrates Andersen Consulting's ability to deliver tremendous value to our clients. This is especially critical in an industry such as ours, which has undergone -- and will continue to undergo -- tremendous change as the lines between banking, insurance and financial markets continue to blur."

According to Skerritt, the Retail Financial Services segment of the practice accounted for $697 million in revenues worldwide, a 31 percent increase over the year earlier, and slightly more than half of total FSI revenues. Revenues in the Financial Markets segment grew 11 percent, to $345 million, while in the Insurance segment, revenues rose 19 percent, to $338 million.

"Our global focus, deep industry knowledge and commitment to understanding and satisfying client needs have been critical to our enormous success," says Skerritt. "By developing strong relationships with the best companies in our industry and maintaining an unrelenting focus on value-added solutions, we have been able to deliver the highest level of service to our clients on a worldwide basis."

One example of this is AMPlus, a new AMP business unit created and staffed jointly by Andersen Consulting and Australian Mutual Provident Society (AMP), Australia's largest financial institution. AMPlus' charge is to develop and drive major initiatives aimed at propelling AMP from a national financial services powerhouse to a global one. Through AMPlus, Andersen Consulting will manage A$750 million of AMP's technology budget for the next five years -- and will be paid on a sliding scale, based on the contribution that AMPlus makes to the overall business.

Andersen Consulting's Financial Service Industry practice comprises over 10,000 professionals who serve more than 500 clients worldwide through three major market segments: Retail Financial Services, Insurance (including Health Management), and Financial Markets (including Investment Management).

Andersen Consulting is a $5.3 billion global management and technology consulting organization whose mission is to help its clients change to be more successful. The organization works with clients from a wide range of industries to link their people, processes and technologies to their strategies. Andersen Consulting has nearly 45,000 persons in 47 countries. Its home page address is http://www.ac.com.

CONTACT: Roxanne Taylor

Andersen Consulting

212/708-5106