IBM and Bank Tech India Payments’ $40mn strategic relationship to improve financial inclusion for India’s rural population

IBM announced that it has entered into a seven year strategic relationship with BTI Payments Private Ltd, India’s fastest growing White Label ATM (WLA) operator, to transform its IT Infrastructure. BTI Payments, which runs over 3000 “India1” branded White Label ATMs will leverage IBM’s managed services solution to deploy and manage an incremental 4,000 Automated Teller Machines (ATM) across the country. IBM’s solution will manage, monitor and maintain the ATM Infrastructure providing BTI better visibility and control of its operations and enabling its maximum efficiency.

According to industry estimates, 60% percent of India’s rural population does not have access to formal banking and financial services, resulting in financial inclusion serving as a key government policy imperative for the country. In Feb 2014, BTI Payments was awarded a license by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for WLA deployment to drive ATM penetration in rural India.

BTI Payments seeks to rapidly expand its network of India1 ATMs across the country, to exceed the RBI target of 9000 ATMs by March 2017. Under this agreement, IBM will take up the maintenance and service of ATM assets, including feasibility, supply and installation, performance monitoring, availability management, reporting and analysis. This collaboration with IBM will help the client significantly scale technology deployment to roll out enhanced functionality in shorter timeframes and also improve customer experience.

“We are committed to supporting the government’s initiative of serving the ‘rural under banked’ population in the country and redefine financial services delivery in India. With technology being the core of financial services business, we needed a strategic partner like IBM with proven service management expertise in the financial sector”, said K. Srinivas, MD, BTI Payments. “This strategic tie-up with IBM will help us build a robust and resilient ATM infrastructure providing improved availability through centralized monitoring, thus enabling us to scale operations and build an agile technology environment.”

“IBM has longstanding relationships in the financial services segment and has in-depth understanding of the business challenges and dynamics of this vertical. We are committed to transforming this sector with our technology and global industry experience.” said Sanjay Khare, Country Manager – Technical Support Services, GTS, IBM India / South Asia. “This strategic relationship provides BTI instant access to country wide infrastructure support giving them single point of accountability, control, and automation of its IT operations, enabling them to focus on their core business.”