Wipro says financial segment improving

By Bijoy Koyitty & Anurag Kotoky

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd is seeing an uptick in demand at its key financial services segment and expects to sustain overall operating margins in the near term as the business environment improves.

The global banking sector has seen a slew of mergers and acquisitions in the recent past, and firms such as Wipro, the country's No. 3 software services exporter, are cashing in on the growing need for technology services.

"The recovery is taking place slowly ... Customers have decided to move on and make things happen," Suresh Vaswani, joint CEO of Wipro's IT business, said at the Reuters India Investment Summit in Bangalore.

The company's banking, financial services and insurance segment (BFSI), which accounts for about a quarter of its revenue, has been pressured by project delays and tightened customer spending amid the global slowdown.

"Some of the uptick is driven by the consolidation activities we are doing for our clients," Wipro Technologies Chief Financial Officer Manish Dugar said.

IT spending by banks and financial institutions has increased in the last two quarters, driven by consolidation-related work, said Rohit Kumar Anand, an analyst with PINC Research.

OPERATING MARGINS SUSTAINABLE