Infy banking arm eyes Europe, Latin marts

The banking business unit (BBU) of Infosys Technologies, which is one of the company's first integrated business unit, is in talks with leading banks in Europe and Latin America for deploying either their entire suite of core banking product (Finacle), or various modules of the suite.

By deciding to enter these markets in a big way, BBU will also gain a significant edge with a firm footing in a developed economy such as Europe and America.

"We are in discussions with nearly 5-6 banks, which have especially evinced interest in our treasury product. We are actively pursuing opportunities in this area. There is a clear trend where banks are trying to migrate their corporate customers on to the internet which is a relatively recent phenomenon. Banks in central eastern Europe are very active in the core banking market. Once we gain an entry, we will look at reducing total cost of ownership by applying Infosys' global delivery model," Merwin Fernandes, vice-president, global head, sales & marketing, banking business unit, Infosys Technologies Ltd, said.

The company already has a presence in Latin America and is now looking at more opportunities in this region.

In fact, it could not have a asked for a better way to enter this market when it bagged the account of National Commercial Bank, Jamaica, which went live with the entire core banking suite in December last.

Initially though, the company is looking at deployments in treasury, which may result in complete scale up to provide end-to-end services.

While its arch rival i-flex may have had more deployments owing to a headstart of 3-4 years, these new wins will prove crucial to BBU. BBU's current footprint includes 89 customers in 25 countries, since its launch in July 2000.

BBU has already gained a firm ground in a consolidation market such as South Asia, which is a home turf. This includes India where it has a 65-70 per cent market share.

Growth markets such as Africa and replacement markets such as the Middle East are also proving to be significant to the unit's topline.

"There is a clear momentum in South Asia which will take us forward for the next 2-3 years. Middle East has been a very attractive market in the last 12-18 months. Out of 5 deals in the last three years, we have bagged 4 major accounts in this region," Fernandes said.

Middle East's contribution to BBU's growth is also owing to the region's exposure to the West. "The are constantly upgrading. This is a techno-savvy market," he said.

BBU is about 700-strong with a majority of the employees in the products delivery area. The unit feels that convergence in terms of upselling or cross-selling to Infosys' clients will happen as it becomes more active in US and Europe.

This is because most of its current revenues come outside these two markets unlike Infosys, which depends largely on Europe and US.