FIS Wins Outsourcing Deal With Caribbean Bank

BY Narayan Ammachchi

U.S. technology services provider FIS has landed a seven-year contract with FirstBank Puerto Rico, expanding its footprint to the Caribbean region.

The Jacksonville, Fla-based company has not disclosed financial details of the deal, but stated that the new deal is the first of its kind it signed in the Caribbean.

Under the deal, FIS will assume full responsibility of the bank’s IT operations and replace the legacy technologies with more advanced ones.

“Our extended relationship with FIS enables us to take advantage of their expertise in managing complex IT infrastructures while ensuring that the technology continues to deliver the results we need for the customers we serve,” said Aurelio Alemán, president and CEO of FirstBank Puerto Rico.

FIS says it is hoping to garner more such deals in the days ahead, and cites a recent report from research firm Celent, which reported that financial institutions would spend more than 77 percent of their budgets on maintenance.

“The hard dollar costs and regulatory burdens of maintaining a complex IT environment are driving more institutions to take a closer look at how they manage their IT systems and budgets,” said Mark Davey, executive vice president, FIS International Solutions Group.

The U.S. company said it would deliver ‘innovative options’ so the bank can successfully deal with the challenges.

FirstBank is a subsidiary of BanCorp and has operations in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Florida.