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BPO bug bites global bourses

January 21, 2006 12:09 IST
In the next big wave of outsourcing, stock exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and the Singapore Stock Exchange, are increasingly outsourcing their critical business applications to Indian IT firms like Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services.

The outsourcing has resulted in cost savings of about 40 per cent for the exchanges, while generating revenues of about $200 million for Indian firms, which are developing solutions in this sector.

With both the NYSE and Nasdaq announcing their intentions of becoming profit centres, cost pressures are likely to intensify in the coming months, forcing the bourses to outsource more work to cost-effective destinations like India.

"Cost pressures are forcing international stock exchanges to outsource even critical applications like listing, trading and market surveillance to IT companies. The savings for these exchanges are upwards of 40 per cent within a span of nine months," said Wipro Vice-President (securities) Santhosh Nair.

Wipro has a $10 million contract with the NYSE for its listing and market surveillance applications. Its securities and capital market business employs about 2,500 people and has been growing at the rate of 70 per cent for the last two years.

"The increase in the trade volumes will be a major boost to the overall business, leading to 40 per cent growth for Wipro over the next 12 months," added Nair.

TCS is the only Indian IT company that has been shortlisted for a regional stock exchange in Germany and has a $5 million contract with Dubai International Financial Exchange for clearing the settlements for securities traded on the exchange.

The company, which already has Nasdaq and the German Stock Exchange as its clients, has about 7 per cent of its global revenues coming from the stock exchange and depository business.

Gaurie Mishra in New Delhi
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