TCS expands tech partnership with Bank of Baroda for 5 years

India’s largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday said that it has expanded its partnership with Bank of Baroda, India's second-largest public sector bank, to continue to implement an end-to-end financial inclusion solution over the next five years. 

The application can process around 12 lakh transactions a day and will help the bank's 55,000-plus agents to better service over six crore customers in unbanked areas, Manoj Indulkar, Vice President and Operations Head, India Business, TCS, said in a statement.

As part of the expanded deal, TCS will deploy its TCS Financial Inclusion Gateway Solution for Bank of Baroda, provide central infrastructure including hardware and software to be deployed in bank data centres, and help with application support and maintenance. TCS will also manage services in change management of applications to implement regulatory requirements and bank business requirements for any new services, as and when required.

Apart from supporting banking services such as account opening and IMPS and NEFT transfers, this application will process financial and non-financial transactions such as Aadhaar and Debit card-based transactions. It will also ease the process for enrolment into critical government insurance and pension schemes (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana), helping the bank provide better service to its customers in rural and semi-urban areas.

Vimal Kumar Negi, General Manager, Financial Inclusion and Corporate Social Responsibility, Bank of Baroda, said, “This renewed agreement positions us to leverage TCS's technologies and innovations, further enhancing our operational capabilities and competitive edge.

TCS has been a technology partner for the Bank of Baroda since 2010, helping strengthen the bank’s digital infrastructure. This is the fourth extension to a nearly 15-year partnership between TCS and Bank of Baroda, which has around 165 million customers across 17 countries.

The tech major has implemented its Financial Inclusion Gateway Solution for various public and private sector banks, including the State Bank of India and Indian Bank, among others.

Furthermore, in November, it signed a three-year extension for its contract with System for Pension Administration Raksha (SPARSH) portal, India’s central web-based system for automating pension processes for defense personnel, to streamline pension distribution for over three million defense pensioners in India. 

Since the rollout of SPARSH in October 2020, TCS has implemented an integrated pension disbursement solution, reducing processing times from 12-18 months to just 14 days. That said first-time pension payments are now processed within five to seven days.