IBM and National Bank of Canada have signed a $134 million (C$200 million), eight-year IT servicing deal to streamline the bank's brokerage business.
The deal builds on an existing contract between the bank and IBM and expands a 25-year relationship between the vendor and NBC subsidiary National Bank Financial. As a result of this agreement, 115 National Bank Financial employees will join IBM's teams in Montreal and Toronto.
The new services being provided include: managing National Bank Financial's application suite, improving response times at customer service centers, managing their IT operations and introducing new Web-based offerings and workflow tools. The bank says the deal will help it prepare for the industry-wide move to straight-through processing of brokerage transactions.
David Wood, EVP and CAO, National Bank Financial, says: "We want to be ready to respond to new market trends and enhance the quality of our services. We appreciate IBM's expertise and wish to invest in our business relationship to improve our processes."