As banks now more than ever are looking to cut costs wherever they can, it's not surprising that they're still very keen on offshoring despite the political sensitivity of sending jobs abroad.
But the large Indian service companies that provide offshore services, as well as providing people locally in the UK, are finding that banks are cutting back on using them for local contractors/outsourcing contracts.
To compensate, banks are increasing their offshore capabilities, but this is just as likely to be to a captive offshoring centre (owned by the bank), as to a third-party.
RBS is a case in point. I've heard that the number of Infosys people at RBS in the UK has been reduced by over a third in the past few months. But at the same time the bank is increasing the number of employees at its captive centre in Delhi, from around
400-500 now to 800 by year end, with a view to eventually moving around 5,000 positions currently filled by externals to the captive company.
This makes me wonder about the HBOS report of 2,000 local jobs going offshore. How many of these are full-time positions with the bank, and how many are external contractors?