BCT likely to rejig fintech arm, eyes NBFCs

 Information technology (IT) company Bahwan CyberTek (BCT) is planning to restructure financial technology (fintech) vertical and carving it out as a separate entity to seek private equity investment,

According to an official, the firm is looking at the non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) for its early warning system (EWS) suite of products. Big corporates overseas were looking at EWS to detect stress in their portfolio, she said.

"We are open to multiple options if valuations are good. The equity infusion could be used for developing the business in new geographies," Jaya Vaidhyanathan, BCT President, told IANS on Wednesday and added, "We are not desperate to sell the business that is doing well. There is no urgency for us." 

According to her, the competition in this space is not much for BCT and core banking solution (CBS) companies might not be enthused to enter the EWS segment at this stage. "It would have been right for CBS companies to have entered the segment couple of years back, but not now," she said.

Vaidhyanathan said the fintech products contributed substantial revenue to BCT topline of about $340 million. The number of associates in the fintech division is about 50 while BCT has about 2,850 associates.

The BCT is a software for retail, government, power, oil & gas and the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sectors. The company has a suite of fintech products including EWS -- a credit monitoring and predictive analytical solution.

According to Vaidhyanathan, the EWS not only gathers data from the banking transactions carried out by a borrower but also from other sources, like the Internet about the borrowers, the industries they operate, their market dynamics and others.

After the banking sector, the NBFC sector offered a big scope for EWS product, Vaidhyanathan said, and added, BCT has a lighter EWS version for NBFCs. "How the business model for NBFCs would evolve is not clear. Whether the cloud model for NBFCs would be permissible is still is not yet clear," she said.

BCT's EWS is being used by the public and private sector lenders as well as banks in the Middle East and in the US. "We are working with five Indian banks, 3-4 banks in the Middle East and in the US. Sixty per cent of the fintech revenues are from India and the rest from the US and the Middle East," Vaidhyanathan said. IANS