http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0...2D15316,00.html
50,000 bank jobs may go to India
James Riley
JANUARY 18, 2005
ANZ Bank boosted developer numbers at its Bangalore software facility in India by more than 30 per cent last year as it struggled with staff shortages and an overflow of integration work in Australia.
Two other big-four banks - National Australia Bank and Westpac - have also joined the offshoring trend, confirming last week that they had engaged Tata Consultancy Services to perform project work on their behalf in India.
In the past year, ANZ boosted employee numbers at its information technology subsidiary in India by 32 per cent - from 400 to more than 530 - to work on integrating technology systems from its National Bank of New Zealand subsidiary, which ANZ acquired in late 2003.
The Bangalore operation was also playing a central role in developing and maintaining the bank's Peoplesoft human resources and enterprise resource planning projects - an area in which Australia lacked skills, according to an ANZ spokeswoman.
ANZ, which eschewed the outsourcing trend in the late 1990s to retain its hi-tech capabilities firmly in-house, has led the charge in using India-based programmers for Australian work.
The bank has not outsourced development service provision.
Rather, when ANZ sold its India-based Grindlay's Bank subsidiary to the Standard Chartered Bank in 2000, it retained ownership of Grindlay's information technology operation.
Now called ANZ IT, the India-based facility is a central component of the bank's software development and support infrastructure.
Although ANZ IT grew considerably last year, the bank has said it was not at the expense of work that would have been performed in Australia.
"ANZ continues to have about 2000 technology staff working in Australia and New Zealand and we have no plan to change that," the spokeswoman said.
"ANZ IT in Bangalore is an important part of our technology capability and allows us to access some technology skills that are not readily available in Australia.
"The facility provides a flexible workforce that can be scaled around projects, and it provides some cost advantages."
ANZ is also using Tata Consultancy Services to develop its custodian services project.
Westpac has also confirmed that it has engaged Tata on a one-off software development project.
It is thought Westpac is using the project to test the Indian market.
National Australia Bank used Tata in 2000 and 2001.
Finance Sector Union national assistant secretary Cath Noye said offshoring jobs to cheaper labour markets could have a similar effect to the mass branch closures of the 1980s, which cost the industry 40,000 jobs.
Although the union accepted that offshoring some jobs to foreign markets was inevitable, Ms Noye said the Australian economy would suffer if the federal Government did not develop a co-ordinated response to improve local competitiveness.
Union officials will seek meetings with Government and opposition members of parliament to raise concerns about the trend.
"We realise we're in a global market now, and we are not unrealistic about that as a trend," Ms Noye said.
"We want to see this discussed openly, because this is a very important issue, not just for the financial sector, but for the country."
Global business consultancy Deloitte Research expects 15 per cent of the finance sector workforce to be relocated to cheaper labour markets by 2008.
Deloitte estimates that more than 50,000 of Australia's present finance sector workforce of 344,000 will be moved offshore within three years.
Ms Noye said the FSU was working with other finance unions globally through the Union Network International to make sure the offshoring trend did not become "a race to the bottom in wages and labour standards".
"The Indians are worried about losing their jobs to the Sri Lankans, and everybody is worried about losing their jobs to the Chinese," Ms Noye said
50,000 bank jobs may go to India
James Riley
JANUARY 18, 2005
ANZ Bank boosted developer numbers at its Bangalore software facility in India by more than 30 per cent last year as it struggled with staff shortages and an overflow of integration work in Australia.
Two other big-four banks - National Australia Bank and Westpac - have also joined the offshoring trend, confirming last week that they had engaged Tata Consultancy Services to perform project work on their behalf in India.
In the past year, ANZ boosted employee numbers at its information technology subsidiary in India by 32 per cent - from 400 to more than 530 - to work on integrating technology systems from its National Bank of New Zealand subsidiary, which ANZ acquired in late 2003.
The Bangalore operation was also playing a central role in developing and maintaining the bank's Peoplesoft human resources and enterprise resource planning projects - an area in which Australia lacked skills, according to an ANZ spokeswoman.
ANZ, which eschewed the outsourcing trend in the late 1990s to retain its hi-tech capabilities firmly in-house, has led the charge in using India-based programmers for Australian work.
The bank has not outsourced development service provision.
Rather, when ANZ sold its India-based Grindlay's Bank subsidiary to the Standard Chartered Bank in 2000, it retained ownership of Grindlay's information technology operation.
Now called ANZ IT, the India-based facility is a central component of the bank's software development and support infrastructure.
Although ANZ IT grew considerably last year, the bank has said it was not at the expense of work that would have been performed in Australia.
"ANZ continues to have about 2000 technology staff working in Australia and New Zealand and we have no plan to change that," the spokeswoman said.
"ANZ IT in Bangalore is an important part of our technology capability and allows us to access some technology skills that are not readily available in Australia.
"The facility provides a flexible workforce that can be scaled around projects, and it provides some cost advantages."
ANZ is also using Tata Consultancy Services to develop its custodian services project.
Westpac has also confirmed that it has engaged Tata on a one-off software development project.
It is thought Westpac is using the project to test the Indian market.
National Australia Bank used Tata in 2000 and 2001.
Finance Sector Union national assistant secretary Cath Noye said offshoring jobs to cheaper labour markets could have a similar effect to the mass branch closures of the 1980s, which cost the industry 40,000 jobs.
Although the union accepted that offshoring some jobs to foreign markets was inevitable, Ms Noye said the Australian economy would suffer if the federal Government did not develop a co-ordinated response to improve local competitiveness.
Union officials will seek meetings with Government and opposition members of parliament to raise concerns about the trend.
"We realise we're in a global market now, and we are not unrealistic about that as a trend," Ms Noye said.
"We want to see this discussed openly, because this is a very important issue, not just for the financial sector, but for the country."
Global business consultancy Deloitte Research expects 15 per cent of the finance sector workforce to be relocated to cheaper labour markets by 2008.
Deloitte estimates that more than 50,000 of Australia's present finance sector workforce of 344,000 will be moved offshore within three years.
Ms Noye said the FSU was working with other finance unions globally through the Union Network International to make sure the offshoring trend did not become "a race to the bottom in wages and labour standards".
"The Indians are worried about losing their jobs to the Sri Lankans, and everybody is worried about losing their jobs to the Chinese," Ms Noye said
