Norway’s largest bank and maritime shipping bank, DNB Bank ASA, has signed a US$400m deal with IT services provider HCL Technologies to run its IT operations.

HCL will provide IT infrastructure services and application operations for all of DNB’s businesses across Norway and in its key international locations.

DNB has 23 international branches and representative offices and claims to be one of the world’s leading shopping banks.

The IT services provider will also migrate and transform DNB systems and infrastructure from its existing IT partner and create two new data centers in Norway.

DNB said HCL’s key focus will be to drive a world-class user experience to its 2.5 million retail banking customers and end-users across all of its products including retail and online banking, cards, insurance, capital markets, payments and finance.

HCL said the agreement will help DNB “significantly” improve operational stability, reduce cost and implement a strong operations framework with the “highest” levels of service quality and innovation within the bank.

As DNB’s prime services provider, HCL will be responsible for managing operations and multiple vendors across the bank’s technology landscape.

HCL Technologies’ EVP and head of EMEA, Ashish  Gupta said global banks are looking for ways to improve their mission-critical IT operations to deliver world-class customer service.

“HCL will deploy its “Enterprise of the Future (EoF) framework” to enable DNB to not only transform its IT infrastructure but also mature IT operations. This will ensure that the bank has agility to scale IT to meet business needs in a secure compliant manner using a “Digital Fortress” construct,” Gupta said.