Leading Australian banks, including ANZ and St. George, are planning to send their back office jobs to India.
A media report said an analysis of the latest statements by the so-called "four plus one" leading Australian banks suggests there was a slow but growing movement to transfer processing work to lower-cost countries like India.
While ANZ, St. George, National Australia Bank and Westpac have been sensitive to campaigns being waged by the finance sector union against offshoring by committing to keep their call centres in the country, the equivalent of several hundred jobs across the industry are now, or will shortly be, based outside Australia, The Age reported.
ANZ, St George and Westpac have vigorously defended the move in recent weeks, saying they needed to consider and, if necessary, act on plans to switch back-office work overseas to remain competitive. NAB is expected to follow suit.
Only the Commonwealth Bank has indicated that as "an iconic Australian company" it was committed to maintaining a workforce in the country to carry out such work.
However, it has admitted to looking at offshoring in the past, especially given a looming recruitment crisis in the industry, but said it was not on its agenda at present.
ANZ has the most home-grown jobs based overseas, with its biggest presence in the Indian city of Bengalooru (Bangalore), where it has a long-established IT centre employing about 1,400 people.
Unlike some of its rivals, which have outsourced their work to third parties, ANZ's Bengalooru business is a wholly owned subsidiary and the people who work there are employed under local bank conditions.
ANZ has said that it was looking to use that centre to take on certain back-office and operational functions now undertaken in Australia, which could see it expand substantially over the next one to two years.
St George is following suit, with at least 70 processing jobs being sent abroad, and it will investigate other options for outsourcing that don't involve front-office staff who deal directly with the customers. NAB expects about 150 jobs to be transferred over the next year.
In contrast, Westpac withdrew a plan to export 400 jobs from its Concord operations centre in NSW because it did not meet its financial targets. Nonetheless, its wealth management business is believed to have based the work of 70 staff abroad and Westpac has made it clear it is looking at other options, the report said.