Under the deal, Cognizant will purchase ING's facility in North Dakota and sub-lease some of the insurer's offices in Iowa. More than 1,000 ING U.S. employees will be transferred to Cognizant under the seven-year deal.

The new center will be an integral part of Cognizant's global delivery network and will allow the company to provide an expanded range of business process services in the insurance and financial services industries, the IT services firm said.

Cognizant will provide "a comprehensive array of insurance business process services" to ING U.S., a provider of retirement, investment management and insurance services.

Shares of the Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant were up about 1 percent at $59.18 on Thursday on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore; Editing by Sreejiraj Eluvangal)

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