India continues to be the preferred offshore center of financial institutions world over. This was reiterated when recently New Zealand-based ANZ National bank announced that it will soon be outsourcing its 238 back-office jobs to India

According to published reports, the work will be done in India at a quarter of the cost. The bank disputed the union's claim of job losses, saying that the back office workers would be offered the chance to work in bank branches.

"About 403 workers were told that there would be 165 positions in the future, meaning 238 people would either be redeployed or made redundant," said Finsec campaigns director Andrew Campbell.

Meanwhile, another report suggested that London's Barclays bank has decided to enter a managed outsourcing contract, moving 1,800 jobs overseas. The bank will move positions in its global infrastructure and service delivery wing to locations in Singapore, Hungary and India.

Around 700 jobs will go this year as part of the managed outsourcing move, with an additional 1,000 to be off-shored next year. Staff at the firm is being given the opportunity to relocate or change their contracts, with Unite, the union, having regular talks with employees to arrange a fair deal.