News

FIS to provide tech platform for India's first women's bank

November 19, 2013

India is getting its first public sector FI dedicated to serving women's financial needs — the Bharatiya Mahila Bank Ltd. Under a multi-year agreement, FIS will provide the FI's integrated banking and payments platform through an outsourced delivery model that covers core banking, channels, trade finance and the entire suite of payments services that includes switching, debit card management services and ATM management.

According to a news release, FIS also will set up and manage data centers, and deploy and manage branch technology infrastructure. The Bharatiya Mahila Bank branch service strategy incorporates satellite and ultra-small mobile branches as well as conventional ones. 

The FI is part of a government initiative to economically empower female citizens. One of its primary goals is the financial inclusion of India's unbanked rural women. By outsourcing all of its technology infrastructure setup and management, the bank will be able to focus on serving the unique economic needs of women across the country, the release said.

"Women are the most underutilized economic asset of our country," said Usha Ananthasubramanian, chairman and managing director of Bharatiya Mahila Bank Ltd. "Our goal is to be the foremost provider of banking services to women. FIS was able to present us a high-quality technology solution with a model that could be operationalized in the shortest time frame and is easily scalable for our planned growth."

The government of India has committed R10 billion (US $160 million) toward the initial capital of the bank. 

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