The Bank of Ireland is the largest private bank is going through a tough time with a crisis in Irish banking industry and need 2.2 billion euros for a bailout. IT will not withhold the bank’s management from spending more on outsourcing to Business Process Outsourcing vendors in India which the bank feels is imperative to transformation and create a new job. With ET, in an exclusive chat, the bank of Ireland’s head of group customer operations Joe Larkin said that the Indian partners including the HCL and TCS are core to banks customers operations and he will be spending more on such partnerships.
Moving jobs to offshore locations like India makes sense in the current political environment. The Larkin tells ET on the sidelines of the NASSCOM BPO Summit. Larkin is a part of a team which has just signed IBM as the new prime Information Technology vendor for the Bank of Ireland. Larkin manage the bank relationships with the Indian outsourcing partners including the HCL BPO in Chennai, TCS in Mumbai besides Accenture and IBM which also service the client.
The Bank of Ireland has shifted its post office deposit business out of its balance sheet and moved its customer operations to India. Using a bank is like using an iPhone. There are hundreds of suppliers who are supplying the applications. Although, the customer just looks it from the outside. The bank has a balance sheet of over 155 billion euros and employs about 14,000 people. The India is very core to any bank’s Information Technology budget with its large talented pool. The quality of delivery from suppliers is excellent.
The Larkin also added that the downgrade of the US debt has changed the world view of banking industry. They are all struggling to raise capital to meet the required capital adequacy ratios. They are looking for Business Process Outsourcing vendors who will modernize them and bring them to the cutting edge in banking industry. The Business Process Outsourcing will increase for banks, the Ireland has emerged as the nearshore destination for Europe with a cheap labor pool and a 3.5 hours flight to mainland Europe.
REFERENCE:
http://banking.contify.com/story/tata-consultancy-services-hcl-core-to-our-bpo-strategy-bank-of-ireland-2011-08-25
http://oneclick.indiatimes.com/article/03kGeXR2F536x
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/outsourcing/India-core-to-our-BPO-strategy-Bank-of-Ireland/articleshow/9732063.cms
