BANGALORE: Logica has won a contract with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system of India valued Rs. 75 crore. According to an official release, the contract includes a new generation of high value payments systems in India, a new core banking system for the RBI and Logica's Quaestor product suite for all participating banks and financial institutions.

The release further stated that Logica will implement a national RTGS system which will allow all the banks in India to make secure inter-bank payments across the country. The new core banking system will cover all the general transactions and central accounting of the RBI, including the bank's general ledger. The core banking system will run in Mumbai with Logica's Quaestor Banking System running on the Microsoft Windows 2000 platform as the branch front-end. Logica will also provide full disaster recovery capabilities.

Under this contract, Logica will supply its Quaestor banking product to 205 Indian banks and financial institutions to enable their direct participation in the RTGS system. With a large number of participating banks in India and a population in excess of one billion, the RTGS system of India is set to become one of the highest volume RTGS payment systems in the world.

Logica India, managing director, Hamish Harding, said, "This project will provide significant benefits to individuals and businesses throughout India by allowing the transfer of funds from one customer to another at a different bank immediately." By underwriting all payments with collateral held at the Reserve Bank of India, the RTGS system will reduce 'systemic risk' in the banking system, thereby providing increased integrity and security for all inter-bank transactions, he added.

Logica India has been operating in India for the last five years and employs 250 staff. Logica has three offices in India - Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai, and is involved in projects in the Indian banking and mobile telecoms fields.

Logica Plc is a leading global solutions company providing management and IT consultancy, systems integration, products, services and support. Worldwide, Logica's clients operate across diverse markets including telecoms, financial services, energy and utilities, industry, distribution and transport and the public sector. The company has over 12,000 staff in 30 countries and has completed projects in over 100 countries worldwide.