Global service providers CSC and HCL will team up to create a new software and services company aimed specifically at the banking and finance industry.
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The pair today announced they had signed a definitive joint venture agreement that would offer "platform modernisation and product functionality enhancement" for banks and finance companies.
Under the agreement, CSC will provide core banking, cards and payments technology and staff, software and product development functions.
HCL will offer its product engineering, application implementation, banking sales and client engagement services.
Capital investment for the joint venture will be provided by HCL.
The name of the new entity will be announced at a later date, a CSC spokesperson said.
CSC will transition more than 500 existing banking software employees across to the new company.
The joint venture is scheduled to commence full operations by the end of the calendar year. The "intent" is that the company will operate in Australia, the CSC spokesperson said.
Through the new firm, banking and financial services companies will be able to utilise a "more scalable global footprint" and "seize on the power of risk-managed modernisation", the companies said.
Specifically, it would "reaffirm CSC's commitment to expand and enhance its Hogan and CAMS core banking and cards platforms into modernised end-to-end solutions under the [new] Celeriti suite", they said.
CSC took its customers by surprise in 2013 by announcing it would support SAP’s banking software as well as its own.
It led many to question how serious CSC was about the future of its own core banking platform.
However, the company managed to convince Australian 'big four' member Westpac of Celeriti's future viability enough for the bank to finally begin migrating its Hogan core banking platform onto the newer Celeriti product earlier this year.
“Many of our banking clients are looking for modernisation of their legacy platforms while simultaneously managing the increasing demands for data analytics services, multi-channel deployments, and increasing regulatory compliance requirements," HCL chief Anant Gupta said in a statement.
"The joint entity with CSC is designed to meet those critical demands with new and innovative solutions and to expedite the modernisation transformation journey of our banking clients.”
