Merrill Lynch to shift Satyam contracts to TCS

Investment bank Merrill Lynch (ML) is in the process of shifting a majority of its contracts with troubled software company Satyam to India’s largest IT vendor Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), according to software industry
sources familiar with the matter. The account contributes around $40 million to Satyam’s yearly revenues.

ML had sent a team in early February to assess the ground situation at Satyam’s headquarters. The bank had told the Satyam team of their intention of handing over most of the IT services to another vendor. ET had reported in its edition dated January 31, that ML would be sending its team to the company’s office.

TCS currently provides application, maintenance and development work for the bank in the field of transaction documentation, legacy application, capital markets trading and financial accounting among others. TCS and Satyam also share financial services major Citi as a client.

Bank of America, which took over Merrill in September 2008, is also a TCS client. Industry officials say that when the two banks start their system and application integration process, TCS is likely to gain from this.