Insurance group Prudential says it is outsourcing its customer sales and services operations in Belfast to BPO firm Capita instead of shifting the work to India and other parts of the UK.
Prudential has signed a three year contract, worth around £40 million, with Capita for the provision of a range of life and pension sales and administration services.
The deal will see Capita manage a number of sales and administration services for Prudential's UK business in addition to the services it already provides Prudential's international life assurance business.
Under the contract Capita will takeover management of Prudential's customer call centre in Belfast, which the insurance firm had previously slated for closure. Prudential said in April that the Belfast unit was one of three sites it was closing under plans to move jobs to India and other parts of the UK.
But under the new deal Capita will take on approximately 450 staff currently working in Prudential's customer services, PruDirect and support services operations in Belfast in early Autumn.
Commenting on the move Nick Prettejohn, chief executive of Prudential UK, says this has been a "very difficult time" for all staff in Belfast.
"This outsourcing agreement helps provide them with continued employment and enables us to maintain the highest standards of customer service while delivering the efficiencies and cost savings we announced earlier in the year," says Prettejohn.
But although the Belfast centre has been saved, around 200 other jobs are still set to be cut from Prudential's offices in Bristol and from the London head office of its Internet banking operation Egg.