Under the European agreement, Arthur Andersen will develop and operate a world-class Financial Shared Services center in Barcelona, Spain that will handle over $85 billion annually in financial transactions processing for GM's operations in 17 European countries. This is on top of the $250 billion in financial transactions Arthur Andersen will handle annually for GM's operations in North America through a new financial shared services center that it will develop and operate in Tempe, Arizona.

"The expansion of the North American agreement to include Europe will enable us to help GM in their quest to achieve and maintain best-in-class financial operations on a global basis," said Tom White, Arthur Andersen's global managing partner for Business Process Outsourcing - Finance Operations.

"With this European agreement and new Financial Shared Services center in Barcelona, Arthur Andersen will combine ist world-class finance and accounting expertise and leverage today's leading technology applications to help multinational companies like GM achieve greater operational efficiency and cost savings, while giving them more opportunity to focus their attention and resources on their core business to create further competitive advantage," said Nicolas Job, Arthur Andersen's managing partner for Business Process Outsourcing - Finance Operations in Europe.

"The benefits that this agreement offers GM in Europe will be the envy of many companies looking for ways to reduce costs in today's fiercely competitive marketplace," said Alejo Catalan, Director of Shared Financial Services for GM Europe. "The fact that we can find innovative ways to restructure our business while at the same time minimizing the impact on our workforce makes this an excellent business decision."

(May 11, 2000)