BANGALORE, India, June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Sree Charan Souharda Cooperative Bank has selected IBM SmartCloud to help it meet growing demand, add new customer services and to centralize mission-critical operations such as real-time transaction processing across its five branches in Bangalore.

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As part of the agreement, the IBM SmartCloud will be used to deliver the Resilience for Core Banking solution from IBM Business Partner Infrasoft Technologies Ltd. With this technology on the IBM SmartCloud, Sree Charan Souharda Cooperative Bank will be better able to align its business processes with predictive analytics and offer enhanced financial solutions to its customers including Internet banking, online money transfer, ATM Services, and mobile banking.

In addition, with new regulations shaping customer expectations from cooperative banks in India, these banks have an increased focus on IT-related compliance in order to effectively compete against other private banks.

"In today's globally interconnected world, our customers have increased expectations for better services, particularly in the areas of Internet and mobile banking. New, more sophisticated and intelligent technologies can empower change and create opportunities for our bank to deliver these services and at the same time manage growth, risk and efficiency," said B V Dwarakanath, Chairman, Sree Charan Co-operative Bank Ltd. "By implementing the cost effective, state-of-the-art Core Banking Solution being delivered via the IBM cloud, we will be able to operate on a centralized network twice as fast as the existing set up. This solution is also helping us reduce the burden of upfront capital expenditure and move to a pay-as–you-use model." 

"Cloud computing is having a dramatic impact on the financial services industry," said Jim Comfort, vice president, IBM Cloud Services Offering Management. "We see tremendous opportunity to take advantage of the opportunities in online banking and at the same time reduce the cost and increase the return on investment."

"Increasingly, IBM sees cooperative banks opting for a more robust IT environment, provided by cloud computing, to improve operational efficiency in a cost effective and secure manner. While ensuring that the IT infrastructure and customer data is secure, the solutions also give banks a centralized view of the customers' business which will help them better understand customer behavior, and adjust to demand, including increased online and mobile banking. This win is further testimony to the leadership position in the banking industry shared by IBM and InfraSoft and our mutual commitment towards forging relationships with small and medium sized banks," said KS Raghunandan, director, Integrated Technology Services, Global Technology Services, IBM India/South Asia.

About Sree Charan Souharda Cooperative Bank
Sree Charan Souharda Cooperative Bank is a member of the Karnataka State Souharda Federal Cooperative Ltd., the first apex body of new generation cooperatives in India.

About Infrasoft
For more information on Infrasoft Tech, please visit http://www.infrasofttech.com/

About IBM
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Preeti Gupta, IBM Communications India
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Darcy Hansen, IBM Communications 
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SOURCE IBM