Citing an Abbey insider, a report by the UK's Daily Mail newspaper says the bank is planning to pull the plug on its Bangalore call centre next year and transfer jobs back to the UK because of customer complaints about service levels.

The newspaper says a formal statement from the bank is expected later this year.

Abbey, which opened its Bangalore facility two years ago, was one of the first UK banks to offshore work to cheaper overseas centres in Asia. The unit mainly deals with administrative work and customer enquiries and is operated by US-based MsourcE which provides transaction processing, accounting and pay roll services in Bangalore and Pune.

According to local press reports, the facility will be scaled back before being shut down next year and work will be transferred to Abbey's UK call centres in Milton Keynes, Teesside and Glasgow.

Spain's Banco Santander, which acquired Abbey last year, says is currently reviewing all the UK bank's third party contracts but has not yet confirmed plans to close the Indian operation.

Earlier this week Santander said it planned to axe a further 2500 jobs at Abbey on top of the 4000 already being shed this year under new cost cutting plans.