Narayan AmmachchiCognizant has landed a ten-year contract with European banking group Dexia to provide IT and back-office services for the financial firm’s capital markets and credit operations.
Under the agreement, more than 150 IT employees of the bank will be transferred to Cognizant’s newly established branch in France.
Dexia’s officials have claimed that the deal would help the bank save EUR€100 million (US$116 million) in operational costs over the ten-year period, admitting that their IT infrastructure was becoming outdated.
“Partnering with Cognizant on IT and back-office activities aims at securing our operating model, one of our key priorities given the fragmented and aging IT infrastructure of the group,” said Wouter Devriendt, CEO of Dexia.
Dexia found itself mired in a financial mess when the 2008 US housing crisis plunged the global economy into recession. It has since recovered somewhat, but the pressure to cut costs has remained.
Cognizant will start providing IT services by November this year, but BPO services will begin only in the first half of 2018 as the company is yet to build a managed services platform for the Franco-Belgian bank.
The BPO services it has agreed to provide include transaction settlements, clearances and records maintenance.
“We look forward to working with Dexia to transform its technology infrastructure and lay a foundation for more agile, efficient, and secured operations, as well as digital innovation,” said Santosh Thomas, President of global growth markets at Cognizant.
The agreement expands Cognizant’s presence in France, where it has delivery centers in Paris, Lyon, and Grenoble.
Reports say Dexia started looking for an outsourcing partner in 2015 itself and had held talks with Société Générale and Crédit Agricole.
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