Germany's HSH Nordbank has outsourced the management and operation of its IT infrastructure, including PC networks, telecommunications systems, servers and databases to Wincor Nixdorf Portavis.
HSH Nordbank is the first major bank to outsource operations to Wincor Nixdorf Portavis, which is an IT services joint venture established by Wincor Nixdorf and German savings banks Hamburger Sparkasse (Haspa) and Sparkasse Bremen last year.
Under the deal, Wincor Nixdorf Portavis will manage IT operations across HSH Nordbank's national sites as well as subsidiaries in New York and San Francisco.
As part of the outsourcing agreement, 35 HSH Nordbank employees were transferred to the vendor.
Wincor Nixdorf says the outsourcing agreement is confirmation of its "strategic change of direction" from a systems supplier to a provider of managed services, which are expected to represent half of its entire business in the medium term.