Bandhan Financial Services on Thursday said it has appointed FIS, a US-based global provider of banking and payment-technology solutions, as a technology partner for commencing its banking operation.
The micro-finance major, which had secured an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a banking licence, has outsourced all technology operations for the proposed Bandhan Bank to FIS.
Talking to FE, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, chairman and managing director of Bandhan, said nine IT firms ? including Infosys, Oracle, Tata Consultancy Services and IBM ? were in the race for providing banking technology solutions.
Under the seven-year deal, the global-banking technology giant would provide services in core banking, channel solutions, trade finance, debit card management and transaction switching, Bandhan said in a release, adding that FIS would also be responsible for the delivery and management of the entire IT infrastructure, including all disaster recovery capabilities and inter-branch network.
?Our comprehensive, in-country servicing capabilities will allow Bandhan to launch its operations while remaining focussed on bringing financial opportunities to large numbers of people across India,? said Raja Gopalakrishnan, group managing director (Asia-Pacific) and COO, FIS International.
Bandhan Bank is expected to commence banking operations in 2015, with about 600 branches to serve 10 million customers, and will focus on rural and semi-rural areas, as well as compete with key players in urban and metro areas.
Meanwhile, Forbes India Magazine has conferred upon Ghosh the award for ?Entrepreneur with Social Impact? in 2014 as part of Forbes India Leadership Awards.
