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V. Rishi Kumar

Hyderabad, July 24 Finacle, a business of Infosys, is upbeat on the financial services market, and more specifically on banks seeking to upgrade from old (legacy) technology systems.

The company sees opportunities in the micro finance institution (MFI) business as most of the Indian banks have ambitious plans for financial inclusion. The market opportunity is both at the bank end as also at the MFIs, according to Mr Haragopal, Business Head, Finacle.

There has been significant change in the way the banking sector looks at technology these days. Earlier, they would have a business strategy and see how technology could help. Now they want to work depending on what technology could do to improve their efficiencies and in delivery of services, he said.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Haragopal said that Indian banks are going global and challenging some established banks in new markets and likewise, many European banks are looking to expand in India. This presents a perfect case to offer them consultancy-led deals that proactively suggest how they could improve their business offering new solutions.

Citing some of its recent wins — such as that for ANZ, and some large deployments including one for SBI in their global rollout — Mr Haragopal said that one of the key differentiator is the time taken to deploy such large implementation in new banks without disruption of banking service. He said that it is like changing the engine mid air in Boeing during a transatlantic flight.

Asked about potential in Islamic banking, Mr Haragopal said that the market now is estimated at about $300 billion and poised to grow to about $1 trillion over the next few years. But significantly, it is not confined to West Asia but covers other regions including Eastern Europe and markets such as Indonesia and Hong Kong.

“Though the financial markets are under pressure in some markets, we have not seen much impact with the product being offered in new markets,” he said.

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