TCS Solution to City Union Bank Ltd

- Courtesy  Business Line

Mr V. Narayanan, Chairman, City Union Bank, with Mr S. Ramadorai, Chief Executive Officer, Tata Consultancy Services, and Mr S. Mahalingam, Executive Vice-President, at a press conference in Chennai on Monday. TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) has bagged an Rs 15-crore order from City Union Bank (CUB) for implementing its core banking and market risk solution for the bank. TCS would provide quartz-based core banking software solution to CUB, which has 124 branches across seven States and two union territories.

Mr S. Ramadorai, CEO, Tata Consultancy Services, told reporters here that it was the first time that TCS would provide quartz-based core retail solution in the domestic market. In the turnkey project, TCS would not only supply application software but also assist the bank in setting up the hardware and system software. TCS would have CMC (TCS has a 51 per cent stake in CMC) as its partner for networking CUB branches. As per the agreement, TCS would provide total technology capability in retail banking segment enabling the bank to offer multiple banking including Internet banking, said Mr Ramadorai.

According to Mr V. Narayanan, Chairman, City Union Bank, one of the country's oldest private sector banks based in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, the first pilot branch would be operational by June 2003. In the first phase, the bank plans to bring 20 branches under the solution. The bank plans to complete the networking of all branches by mid-2005, he added.
Mr N.G. Subramaniam, Vice-President and Head, Banking Industry Practice, TCS, said that the retail banking solution framework includes current and savings accounts, deposits, loans, debit cards, remittances and payment collections.

According to Mr Ramadorai, for TCS, the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) contributes 40-50 per cent of the company's turnover - Rs 4,187 crore in fiscal year 2001-02. The company spends about four per cent of the turnover on research and development.
BFSI is an important segment for the TCS and we would continue to invest a lot in the sector in terms of building assets and leveraging those assets,'' he added. To a query on IPO plans, Mr S. Ramadorai said, "Internally we are ready for the IPO (initial public offering)." TCS has the system in place, and the digitising (making each and every process including employee database in the company digital) process in the company was going on. The accounts, numbers and future projections — a pre-requisite for an IPO — are all ready, he added.

He declined to comment on a time frame for the IPO.