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For Polaris Financial Technology, revenue from its largest client — the Citigroup — is enough to pay the entire salary for its 13,500-plus employees.
Annual revenue from Citi for the Chennai-based provider of financial technology grew by nearly three times in the last two decades to around $180 million. Polaris supports and maintains some of Citi’s information technology (IT) systems, critical for the bank’s functioning.
Polaris was incorporated in 1993 to provide IT solutions to the banking, financial service and insurance sector. In 1994, it started providing retail banking solutions to Citibank India, and subsequently became one of the preferred IT service providers to Citigroup globally. “Citibank is one account which pays the salary for our employees. We should be happy with one account, which gives over 40 per cent of revenue,” said Arun Jain, Chairman and CEO, Polaris Financial Technology (earlier Polaris Software Labs).
Jain feels there is still a huge growth in the Citibank account. “So, why should we be scared of that account, unless we are making any big mistake,” he said when asked if it was not risky to be too dependent on one account.
“Yes, investors may look at a potential risk, but it depends on our performance for the client. If the performance is not good, the client will not work with you. We need to give constant focus to both Citibank and non-Citibank accounts,” he said.
While Jain said it’s fine that 40 per cent revenue comes from Citibank, he feels that 35 per cent would have been ideal. One-third revenue from Citibank and two-thirds from other accounts could be a good ratio, he said. Polaris is the chosen partner for nine of the top ten global banks and seven of the ten top global insurance companies.
Citibank India was the first client of Polaris and continues to dominate the company’s revenue mix. Polaris’s acquisition of Orbitech Solutions in the financial year 2003, a subsidiary of Citibank, enabled it to develop software models with software applications used in large banks and other financial institutions, said a report by Crisil Research.
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