MphasiS on Wednesday said that it is working in close coordination with the National Association of Software and Service Companies, the cyber branch of the Pune police and its client bank (Citibank) to ensure swift action against all those involved in the bank fraud in Pune.
Last week, three former MphasiS employees were arrested for allegedly stealing more than $350,000 from the accounts of four customers of Citibank.
Those former employees hacked the customers' accounts and transferred the money to their own accounts. They started doing so in the last week of February and continued with it till last week until they were caught.
An MphasiS release said the company was cooperating with the cyber police to ensure that the perpetrators of the crime are apprehended.
"MphasiS has taken this incident with all the seriousness it deserves. We have instituted our internal inquiry and short term and long term measures in consultation with Nasscom and the bank concerned, to protect our clients and their customers, and safeguard the security and integrity of the BPO business in India," it said.
This incident has evoked mixed response from players in the sector and its observers. Research and consulting firm Forrester Research had in its recent report stated that owing to this incident the call centre expansion in India would be hit by as much as 30 per cent.
Call centre theft may bust India's BPO boom
Outsourcing and India
They had indicated that this incident coupled with other factors such as attrition would dampen BPO growth rates especially in the call centre customer service space in the next 18 months.
Some domestic third-party players said that the impact would last only for a short term. This incident, they explained, heightened the need for security, regulation and stricter enforcement.
"The decision making process may get delayed. Contracts that were close to being signed could be postponed. But this does not imply that outsourcing will stop," they said.
"Companies across the globe have realised the advantages and benefits from outsourcing. This will not change or stop," they added.
One positive factor that has emerged, added Atul Sharma, human resources director, Prudential Process Management Services (Prudential's BPO company) is that the Pune police has taken immediate action. "Their action shows that the country is capable to handle a situation such as this".
