The Canadian Payments Association (CPA), Canada's operator of clearing and settlement systems, has chosen to renew its partnership with CGI Group Inc. (CGI) (TSX:GIB.SV.A;NYSE:GIB) for a ten-year contract valued at CDN$23 million.
As part of the contract, CGI will continue to provide mainframe hosting and telecommunications services as well as disaster recovery services for mission- critical systems. The CPA operates one of the most efficient, reliable payment systems in the world.
"We are pleased to continue our long-term relationship with CGI. Over the years they have made an important contribution to the CPA's achievement of its system reliability targets and the enhancement of system resilience. Quality service delivery and near 100% availability are key to our success, as almost 20 million payment items per day are cleared through CPA systems," said Marc Parent, vice-president, technology and chief information officer, CPA.
Douglas McCuaig, senior vice-president and general manager, GTA and Atlantic, CGI added: "By operating mission-critical information systems, we are playing a vital role in enabling the CPA to provide secure payment clearing systems for all Canadians. We are very proud of the work our team has done for the last ten years and will continue to do so until the year 2014."
Also, the CPA has selected CGI for another project - to develop an Exchange Control System (ECS) as a key component of the CPA's cheque imaging initiative. The ECS will be used by CPA member financial institutions who act as Direct Clearers and others in the exchange and routing of images and data as part of an industry-wide plan to modernize Canada's cheque clearing system using image technology. The project includes the development and support of the ECS as well as a partnership between CGI and CPA whereby CGI will market this solution to financial institutions worldwide.