Banco Popular Invests in Web-Based Reporting
Solution from Cognos


— Cognos and Technology Partners provide business intelligence solution to major financial services provider in Caribbean and U.S. —

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, BURLINGTON, MA—April 2, 2002— Banco Popular of Puerto Rico has implemented a Web-based business intelligence solution from Cognos that will be used enterprise-wide to report on and analyze the performance and risk levels of commercial accounts. Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE: CSN) is the leading global provider of business intelligence solutions.

Banco Popular, with $23.2 billion in assets, is a major financial services provider to Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and continental United States. Managers across Banco Popular's 200 branches are using Cognos Impromptu® Web Reports, PowerPlay®, and Cognos Query® as the corporate standard for managed reporting and multidimensional analysis across all divisions, including mortgage, finance, insurance, and auto leasing.

"Up to now Banco Popular had been dealing with very diverse data sources and was looking for a business intelligence solution that would allow us to simultaneously access and analyze the information within our multiple applications," said Ramón Meléndez, vice president, Banco Popular. "The strength of the Cognos solution and their partner Technology Partners has provided Banco Popular with a solution that has augmented the precision in which we can now analyze our data. The Cognos solution provides our managers with an integrated, consistent, and secure method of reporting and analyzing sensitive corporate data."

"Cognos delivers the industry's most comprehensive business intelligence solution, allowing complex organizations such as Banco Popular to analyze massive volumes of data and use that information to maximum effect throughout the enterprise," said Laura Ghisellini, vice president, Cognos Latin America. "Cognos continues to be the leading business intelligence vendor in Latin America and the Caribbean and this customer success clearly underlines our continued momentum in that region."

About Banco Popular:
A division of Popular, Inc., a bank holding company with $23.2 billion in assets. Banco Popular is a complete financial services provider in Puerto Rico, the United States, and the Caribbean.

In Puerto Rico they are the leading financial institution, offering full commercial banking services, investment products and services, finance and vehicle leasing, mortgages and personal loans through Banco Popular and its affiliates Popular Leasing, Popular Mortgage, Popular Securities and Popular Finance. For more information, visit the Web site at http://it-www.bppr.com/site/pages/preng/home.html.

About Technology Partners:
As a Cognos Business Partner, Technology Partners, Inc. specializes in implementing Cognos Business solutions to help drive organizations to new levels of competitive advantage. Our Business Intelligence implementation methodology allows us to cost-effectively extract and transform data into meaningful information, thereby helping clients maximize the return on their IT investment and profit from their information assets. For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.tippr.com.

Company Overview

"Business intelligence is a strategic imperative. The best way to maximize return on investment in BI software is to work with a leading vendor—one that understands complex enterprise issues and can deliver a complete solution."
Ron Zambonini, President & CEO, Cognos

Cognos is the global leader in business intelligence (BI). Our mission is to make our customers the best decision-makers in the world. Today, more than 19,000 leading organizations use Cognos BI software to transform vast amounts of corporate data into information that helps them align and improve business performance at all levels of their enterprise.

Founded in 1969, Cognos employs more than 2,500 people and serves customers in 120 countries. Our customers are involved in every industry sector including automotive, banking and insurance, energy and natural resources, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals.

Cognos BI solutions, applications, and services are sold directly and are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. These solutions are supported by an experienced field force of more than 1300 customer-facing personnel.

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Brooke Somers
Public Relations Specialist
Phone: (613) 738-1440 ext. 3286
brooke.somers@cognos.com
Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cognos Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Note to Editors:
Copies of previous Cognos press releases and Corporate and product information are available on Cognos' Web site at http://www.cognos.com, and at PR Newswire's site at http://www.prnewswire.com.