Wipro Infotech recently today announced that it has signed a seven year total outsourcing contract with 5 regional rural banks sponsored by UCO Bank, a leading public Sector Bank.

The contract is for implementing a Core Banking Solution (CBS) across 803 branches of RRBs under UCO Bank’s sponsorship.The RRBs under the sponsorship program are Jaipur Thar Gramin Bank (JTGB), Kalinga Gramya Bank (KGB), Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank (BKGB), Paschim Banga Gramin Bank (PBGB) and Mahakausal Kshetriya Gramin Bank (MKGB). These RRB’s have operations primarily in the states of Rajasthan, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and MP. With this initiative, all five RRBs would come under the ambit of core banking, thereby ensuring uniformity in technology platform and related business processes for improved business efficiency and customer care.  

Speaking about the engagement, Ajai Kumar, Executive Director, UCO Bank said: “Today RRBs are being viewed as one of the primary vehicles to drive financial inclusion. This implementation by Wipro would be a big step in technologically enabling our sponsored RRB branches to deliver rural banking services to the masses.”

The scope of services includes building, hosting and managing the underlying infrastructure at the Data Centers, in addition to implementing the Finacle CBS across 5 RRBs. Wipro would also provide network management and user training across all 803 branch locations as a part of the Total Outsourcing relationship. The CBS would be executed on an Application Service Provider (ASP) model where Wipro would get paid on a monthly pay-per-use basis. Roll out of all branches is expected to be completed by September 2011.

Anand Sankaran, Senior Vice President and Business Head, Wipro, India, Middle East and Africa said, “We are excited to be partnering with 5 of the RRBs sponsored by UCO Bank for this long-term and strategic engagement. We are confident that coupled with our vast domain expertise and knowledge of global best practices, we will be able to help RRBs achieve their business objective of taking low-cost banking to the rural masses.”