State Bank plans foray into infotech

quot;Seven consultants have been shortlisted. The presentations are over and the final shortlisting will be done in a week8217;s time,quot; the official said. Leading international firms, including McKinsey amp; Co. KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, are among the consultants which have made presentations to the bank.

The technology plan is the most ambitious exercise planned by the bank in nearly 10 years 8211; the bank last carried out a major organisational restructuring exercise under advice from McKinsey in the early 1990s.

The official said the plan would first address the information technology needs of SBI and it seven associate banks a later would be upgraded to a joint venture company. He did not specify the time by when the joint venture would be set up.

quot;This will take care of not only the technology needs of SBI and associates, it will execute contracts for other banks also. Since it will be based on the idea of the premier bank of the country, the product that will come out of it will be definitely relevant for other banks.quot;

The official said the proposed company would branch out into developing non-banking products later. SBI has estimated its information technology spend at between Rs 5-7 billion in the next three years. quot;The strengths of this joint venture will be our own captive needs which will be an important source of business, secondly finance is no constraint, and thirdly SBI8217;s brand equity,quot; the official said.