TCS has bagged a deal from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to power the NSE IFSC-SGX Connect in Gift City. The NSE IFSC is a fully owned subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). The connect programme will basically enable SGX members to trade on NSE IFSC. TCS will leverage its BaNCS trading solution to enable Nifty trading between India and Singapore through India’s Gift City Initiative, the IT Services firm said on Wednesday. The company claims that more than 40% of trades in India already run through the TCS BaNCS Trading solution.
NSE International Financial Service Centre (IFSC)-SGX Connect essentially aims to bring together the trading of Nifty products in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (Gift) and create a larger pool of liquidity comprising international and home market participants.
TCS did not disclose the deal specifics. However, addressing a virtual media conference, R Vivekanand, Global Head, BFSI Platforms and Products at TCS said that it is a “good contract that we are happy about.” The Gift Connect will allow SGX members to place orders on NSE IFSC using FIX/proprietary APIs or through the TCS BaNCS dealing terminal. “TCS BaNCS will give us a modern, fast, intuitive application interface and real time market data feeds for trading, post trade processing and risk management,” Tinku Gupta, Senior Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer, SGX said in a statement.
NSE IFSC-SGX phase one will be operationalised in April 2022. The full programme on which TCS is engaged, will go live about three to four from then which translates into the beginning of the second half of the calendar year. “This is a five year contract that we have. We expect to run this solution and we expect to operate for at least five years from them. While the initial contract is for five years, we have the confidence that we will continuously enhance it and we will be in this for a sustained period of time,” said Vivekanand. “The potential of what we can do in this is quite high. You are looking at..already servicing two markets what we see as downstream opportunities,” Vivekanand said.
The project is expected to bolster TCS’ positioning in the BFSI space, a key segment that generates significant revenues for the company. “BFSI is our largest vertical..if we can showcase landmark projects in BFSI, nothing like it. I think a programme like this will really help. This gives us a different positioning,” said Vivekanand. The firm is already seeing a good pipeline of opportunities in India and is having active discussions on four market infrastructure projects in the country. “Globally, there are many other opportunities…clearly more than double that number. I am aspiring that over the next six months, we will pretty much be working for virtually every single market infrastructure institution..almost all of them in India. Globally, we have a presence in 32 countries in the market infrastructure space,” said Vivekanand. “We don’t compete with IT companies in this space..we compete with exchange players. It positions us as a differentiated player in BFSI itself,” said Vivekanand.
TCS will explore other opportunities in Gift city. “We are having conversations in the BFSI space, specifically in the capital markets segment right now. The fact that we are having this programme running gives us a deeper Knowledge into what is happening there and that will hopefully give us an advantage,” said Vivekanand. Besides, Gift city also provides varied and larger opportunities as there is a scope to build a complete financial infrastructure there which can address all types of players, not just BFSI. “We are having other conversations, significant projects which I am expecting will take off in the next three to four months months,” said Vivekanand.
The IT major is also betting on future technologies. “We will position ourselves to do meaningful blockchain projects everywhere in the world,” added Vivekanand.