Indian Bank Awards Smart Card Contract To HCL Infosystems

Punjab & Sind Bank Ltd. has awarded a contract to HCL Infosystems Ltd. to provide smart card technology support for a rural financial-inclusion project, according to a regulatory filing by the state-owned bank.

The contract also will require the New Delhi-based company to engage and manage business correspondents deployed in participating unbanked villages, according to the bank.

No financial details were disclosed in the filing. When contacted by PaymentsSource, both the bank and the technology vendor refused to comment beyond what was in the filing.

This is the second such contract an Indian bank has awarded for a smart card-based financial-inclusion project over the past couple of months.

In December, Indian Bank Ltd. awarded Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. a contract to assist in such a project for India’s rural villages (see story).  The organizations have signed a three-year agreement worth 850 million rupees (US$18.7 million or 14 million euros) for the project, which will enable Indian Bank to offer banking services in 5,500 rural villages located primarily in southern India.

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