According to IndusInd Bank managing director KR Maheshwari "the BASE24 solution will provide an unified transaction processing and switching environment on a round-the-clock basis. The switch provides for integration of the front-end delivery channels like automated teller machines (ATMs), point-of-sale (POS), internet-banking, e-commerce payment gateway (B2C & B2B), smart-card payments, call-centers, utility-bill payments and other delivery mechanisms with back-end banking host systems". A new company IndusInd Information Technology Ltd (IITL) has been formed to take care of the IT-related activities of the bank and the Hinduja group.

The bank holds a majority stake in the new firm along with a Hinduja Finance, and a part of the satke is to be off-loaded to a foreign partner."IITL is in talks with a host of banks to use the ATM switch. This will be a boon to the smaller banks as their investment will be lower. Customers of IndusInd Bank will be able to use the ATM of the other banks and vice-versa once the agreement has been signed", added Mr Maheshwari. IndusInd's senior vice president N Suresh Pai said that the bank is in talks with a foreign supplier for launching a full-fledged internet banking service. The bank is in the process of increasing its branch network to 50 from 27 by the year end.

IITL intends to partner with telecom service providers to build and provide value-added services through a high bandwidth nation-wide transaction backbone. IITL's president & CEO Jai Shankar said that "a countrywide infrastructure covering 30-35 cities will be launched in the near future.

Already five consortia have bid for the project, which includes telecom service providers and network providers. In the initial phase, this service will be used for communication among the group companies with the node being set up mostly at Chennai. The network will also provide value-added transactions like document workflow, fax transmitions. In the second phase we will also talk to other corporate customers Mrs Shankar added. On the e-broking front, Mr Shankar added that the bank will set up a brokers plaza where the customers will be able to choose from the panel of brokers listed on the site, and focus on the future IT activities of IndusInd Bank and will offer current-generation IT services both within the groupand outside.

IITL's main focus will be to offer product/service offerings to banks and financial institutions in India on either a "shared" or "hosted" mode or through the building of competence centres.