Australian banks, such as, ANZ, St. George, National Australia Bank and Westpac have been thinking about sending their back-office jobs overseas. These banks are now planning to outsource their banking and financial services to India. An analysis of the statements of the four major banks in Australia, by a media report, have suggested that these banks are slowing moving towards outsourcing their processing work, to countries like India, where they can avail of cost-effective services.
The Finance Sector Union in Australia ,recently held campaigns against offshoring. Although ANZ, St George, National Australia Bank and Westpac have been sensitive to these campaigns, they have strongly fortified this move. The banks felt that they needed to consider sending their back-office work overseas, in order to remain competitive in the highly competitive financial market. The only exception to this move is the Commonwealth Bank, which has vouched to stay out of offshoring, as it does not have outsourcing on its agenda right now, although this bank too, has considered outsourcing in the past.
Of all the major Australian banks, ANZ has the most number of clients overseas, with its biggest center in the Silicon Valley, Bangalore, India. The Bangalore centre is a wholly owned subsidiary, unlike ANZ’s rivals, who have outsourced third work to third parties. ANZ plans to use their Bangalore office to tackle some back-office and operating functions, which are now being currently used in ANZ, Australia. They have planned this, because they can see their business expanding over the next one to two years.
Other Australian banks, such as St George, have at least 70 processing jobs, overseas. NAB also expects to transfer 150 jobs, abroad during this year. Westpac, on the other hand, backed-off from its outsourcing plan, because it did not meet their financial targets.
