Laurentian Bank and IBM Canada Ltd. have announced a $30 million, six-year agreement under which IBM will manage the bank’s IT operations.

IBM will support the bank’s back office and ABM services as well as the systems supporting wealth management, mutual funds and the bank’s commercial business lines. The agreement will allow Laurentian Bank to scale its IT operations capacity as needed, paying only for what it uses.

This agreement extends a four-year managed IT operations agreement between IBM and Laurentian for another six years, providing the bank more flexibility in managing its IT operations as the bank grows.

“If there’s a surge in Laurentian’s needs or a large increase in customer inquiries, for instance during the busy RRSP season, IBM can provide the additional IT capacity with a turn of the switch,” said Denis Chalifour, director of IBM Global Services in Quebec. “With our industry expertise, we can offer new technology that increases the power and flexibility of the IT resources the bank needs, while charging Laurentian only for the resources it actually uses.”

In 2004, IBM and Laurentian announced another agreement to support the bank’s growth plans. They have been working together to install some 200 state-of-the-art automated banking machines throughout Quebec, enabling the bank to offer new banking services. The machines respond faster and provide information updates instantly on their screens about the bank’s new services as the bank grows its business within Quebec.