British bank opts against outsourcing to India

Tuesday, 04 May 2004, 19:30 IST
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LONDON: British bank Alliance & Leicester (A&L) has announced that it will keep its calls centres in the country and not offshore them to India. The former building society has opted for its stay-at-home policy amid growing signs of a customer backlash against the steady flow of services out of Britain. A&L said it had taken the decision after a poll carried out on its behalf showed almost nine out of 10 people would not be happy if their bank account or other financial services were handled by an overseas call centre. In the survey by YouGov, the main reasons cited were concerns about jobs being lost from Britain and worries about problems in communication. A&L chief executive Richard Pym said: "We believe our customers want to speak to staff based in Britain. People in this country are not happy to have their bank account or other financial needs serviced from an overseas call centre." The bank employs 1,600 staff at five call centres around the UK. Trade union Amicus has estimated that up to 50,000 call centre jobs, mostly from the financial services sector, have already been switched overseas. "Our relationship with customers is too important to us to put it at risk by following the current fashion for offshoring," said Pym.
Source: IANS
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