Tata Consultancy Services, in alliance with the Sydney-based Financial Network Services, has bagged a core banking project of Indian Bank. The project was up for grabs through an international tender.

This is TCS's acquisition of second major core banking project after State Bank of India's Rs 500 crore deal.

Although the size of the Indian Bank project could not be ascertained, sources in the know of the development said it would be anything around Rs 100 crore.

A TCS spokesperson refused to comment on the issue on the plea that the company's initial pubic offering (IPO) remained open. "The company cannot comment on any information that may have an impact on the subscription of the issue," the spokesperson said.

The banking, financial services and insurance contribute 40 per cent of TCS' total revenue of Rs 7,122.70 crore

The project, which is designed to be implemented in two phases, will cover 1,500 branches over two years. In the first phase, TCS will implement commercial roll out of BANCS (FNS banking solution) in almost 500 branches, while the second phase will take care of the balance.

The project features latest BANCS solution which covers loans, deposits, bank automation and cards. The new banking solution will complement Indian Bank's target of computerising all branches by 2007.

The target is a part of the bank's centenary celebration programme.

Financial Network Services and TCS have drawn up a pilot project of implementing the schedule in 10 branches of Indian Bank in eight months. The target, once reached, would represent a record for a core banking project of this scale.