BNP Paribas Signs $410 Million IT Services Contract with IBM

Six-year contract covers all IT operations of BNP Paribas' Italy subsidiary; BNP to begin standardizing IT across French and Italian offices.

BNP Paribas today announced a 318 million euro (roughly $410 million at today's currency exchange rate), six-year agreement for their existing joint venture, BP2I, to support and manage the overall information technology infrastructure operations of BNP Paribas' subsidiary office, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Italy.

By extending BP2I to Italy, BP2I will be able to provide solutions across BNP Paribas' French and Italian operations. BP2I will provide cost savings to the BNP Paribas Group by transforming BNL's IT infrastructure and aligning it with BNP Paribas' current infrastructure and standard processes. The agreement will also enable BNP Paribas Group to strengthen the Italian subsidiary's ability to handle the globalization requirements of the retail banking business.

In signing this agreement, BNP Paribas is expanding its existing partnership with IBM, which began in 2004 when IBM proposed a new IT infrastructure management for BNP Paribas Group's retail and insurance branches across France, and in doing so, created BNP Paribas Partners for Innovation (BP2I), the IT services company equally owned by BNP Paribas SA and IBM.