Canara Bank signs largest Linux deployement with nation-wide branch automation

Under the roll out of its ''total branch automation'' (TBA), Canara Bank is modernising branch automation through an in house developed TBA package. The package has been ported to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform by Canara Bank''s subsidiary, CanBank Computer Services Ltd. (CCSL).

The nearly one century old bank has has a network of 2508 branches across India. In the year ended 2005, it was among the country''s highest net profit earners among nationalised - Rs1,110 crore with a capital adequacy ratio of 12.78 per cent and net NPA ratio of 1.88 per cent.

This is in keeping with the bank''s strategy of using technology to provide affordable banking services to rural customers Red Hat''s flagship operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, will be deployed on more than 1,000 servers and 10,000 desktops at Canara Bank to provide a robust, secure and scalable technology

Under the first phase of deployment, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been rolled out at approximately 500 branches in a record time of three months. Close to 500 Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers and 5000 Red Hat Desktops have been deployed in this phase. As part of its vision to introduce 100 per cent automation into its banking services environment, Canara Bank is actively pursuing deployment in additional branches as well.

Established in December 2000, Red Hat India Pvt Ltd. is a subsidiary of Red Hat Inc, USA. Red Hat has been in the forefront of bringing the latest open source and Linux technology to India. Linux is a US registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.