Wipro, Megasoft join Satyam's ranks, barred by World Bank for direct contracts

But once the bank had changed its position, Wipro thought it proper to issue a statement and clarify, Paranjpe said. "I am surprised at the timing of the statement by World Bank. This is a more than an eight year old story," he added.

"In light of the current developments, we decided it was better to disclose more rather than less," Wipro CFO Suresh Senapaty said, adding that he is not worried that Wipro stock plunged on the debarment news. "It takes time for people to come to terms with this. Once people understand the story, the stock will be back," he said.

"Let me reaffirm that Wipro was right from a legal as well as ethical standpoint. We believe what we did was right and we did it in the right manner," said Wipro chairman Azim Premji in an email to employees.

The Hyderabad-based Megasoft made a similar statement assuring investors that the debarment would have no adverse financial impact on the company as from 2004 it had discontinued providing services to the World Bank and the revenue from the development bank was insignificant.

According to Megasoft, the World Bank had approached them in 2007 seeking details about its operations in China and had objected to their having a joint venture with an ex-employee of the World Bank. "We had by then even shut down our China operations. They objected to us having a joint venture with an ex-employee of the World Bank and chose to debar us on that ground," the company said in a release.

"The logic that we applied then was that the World Bank was no more our customer, and we were also shifting our focus from the onsite staffing services that we used to provide to the Bank. So, the ban was not going to have any impact on our financials," said G.V. Kumar, managing director and CEO, Megasoft.