India's Canara Bank Ltd said on Friday it had awarded a contract for automation of its branches to IBM and i-flex solutions ltd, in one of the Indian financial industry's largest such deals.
Canara Bank Chairman M.B.N. Rao told a news conference that IBM would supply hardware worth 1 billion rupees, while a bank official who did not want to be identified told Reuters the total deal was worth 2.15 billion rupees ($49 million).
The state-run bank, confirming what an industry source told Reuters earlier in the day, said IBM would run its data centre while i-flex would provide software and support for an automation project which would last eight years in all.
Shares in i-flex rose 2.3 percent to 950.4 rupees in a weaker Bombay stock market.
Canara, India's fifth-most-valuable bank, has 26 million customers served by 2,500 branches, of which more than 1,000 will be linked to the i-flex software in 13 months. The bulk of the spending would be during this period, Rao said.
About 85 percent of the bank's business will be covered by the automation project, Canara Bank said in a statement.