UK-based retail bank HSBC Plc is planning to increase its offshore headcount to 25,000 in the next three years, and to build up to 15 new service centers. It already has about 13,000 employees across its 10 service centers in India, China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Chief operating officer Alan Jebson said the bank saves about $20,000 for each job it moves, and that only adverse customer reaction could cause it to rethink its strategy. Politicians and media can do their worst but in the end it’s the customers that matter, he said, according to a report by the BBC. So far, the bank has sent bank-office and customer services work abroad but has not yet sent any UK-based IT work offshore.
Meanwhile, another UK-based bank, LloydsTSB, faces increased union opposition to its plans to take advantage of low-cost workers in Asia. LloydsTSB Group Union, which represents 45,000 staff at the bank, has criticized it for continuing to transfer jobs to India at the same time as it is making huge profits in the UK.
Earlier this year it announced annual profit of 3.5bn pounds ($6.7bn). It laid off 960 staff in November 2004 when it closed a call center in Newcastle, and has confirmed that 2,500 UK jobs will go to India by the end of this year, though the union estimates that this will eventually rise to 10,000. The union has organized a petition opposing the transfer, and claims that over 400,000 of the bank’s customers have signed it.