TCS to engage in comprehensive outsourcing for Ecuador's largest private bank
January 19, 2007

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has announced that it has signed an agreement with Banco Pichincha, Ecuador's largest private bank, to provide a comprehensive outsourcing solution valued at over US$140 million over a period of five years.

Some of the salient highlights of the agreement:

• One of the largest ever outsourcing deals in Latin America, worth over US$ 140 million
• Comprehensive solution includes core banking product, IT outsourcing and BPO services
• Strategic engagement aims to strengthen Banco Pichincha´s business efficiency ratios
• A new centre of 500 personnel in Ecuador to be set up, retaining the bank's employees

Banco Pichincha, a renowned regional leader in adopting innovation and new technology, has over 1.5 million clients, a loan portfolio of over US$1.5 billion and over 232 branches spanning Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Spain and the United States. "This initiative will be a critical part of our business strategy as we continue to create excellent results in improving our business efficiency ratios," said Antonio Acosta, joint president of Banco Pichincha. The general manager of the bank, Fernando Pozo added, "We chose TCS as our strategic partner on the strengths of its end-to-end technology capabilities, reputation in providing certainty of results, deep domain expertise in banking and committed scale of operations in this region."

The comprehensive solution being developed for the bank will include a complete renewal of the bank's core banking solution with the TCS BANCS solution, followed by IT & BPO outsourcing of the bank's operational processes. "This is the first BANCS implementation in Latin America and the first ever strategic outsourcing of such comprehensive nature in this region, demonstrating Banco Pichinchas clear vision to play on the same level as the best run banks in the world," said Gabriel Rozman, president of TCS Iberoamerica.

TCS will set up a new company in Ecuador, which will comprise over 500 personnel in the country, and supported by its offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) centre in Chile and global delivery centres across the world. "Our entry in Ecuador is part of a long term plan to invest in and grow in the country. We will retain all of Banco Pichincha´s current staff engaged in these processes and bring in our best human resources and practices worldwide to train our employees in Ecuador," said Henry Manzano, CEO of TCS´ BPO unit in South America. In 2005, TCS had acquired Comicrom, the leading BPO firm in Chile.

"Having successfully integrated the acquisitions we had invested in last year, we are able to offer a complete end to end outsourcing solution to our banking clients. This strategic engagement with Banco Pichincha validates our strategy and marks TCS' clear arrival as a full services player in the banking sector," said N Chandrasekaran, head of global sales and operations for TCS.