More British banking jobs to move to India

Thousands of British banking staff could learn as soon as today that their jobs are being exported to India when Lloyds TSB and Barclays are expected to reveal the extent of their intentions to expand on the subcontinent.

Their plans for further expansion in India follow this month's announcement by HSBC that it is to move 4,000 jobs to India, Malaysia and China and shut five processing centres in Britain.

Lloyds TSB has already warned its 79,000 British-based staff that it plans to move 1,500 jobs to Bangalore after a successful pilot project.

It is now thought to be making its final decisions about which UK operations will be most affected by the decision, with call centres in Glasgow, Newcastle, Sunderland, Newport, Bridgend and Swansea all potentially vulnerable.

Its Scottish Widows life insurance business, the Cheltenham & Gloucester mortgage arm and its general insurance unit are all thought to have been warned that they could be affected by the relocation of jobs to India.

Lloyds TSB declined to comment last night. In a memo to staff last month, it said any job cuts would be achieved by natural wastage and cutting agency staff. But it admitted that in some cases it would require voluntary redundancies.

Barclays is thought to be preparing to tell staff that it too is considering expanding call centre and back office work in India - although a spokeswoman insisted last night that there were "no plans at this stage" to axe British jobs.

Many financial services companies have been attracted to using highly educated, English-speaking staff in Asia to deal with back office and call centre roles, although HSBC has taken the most radical steps so far by admitting that processing centres will have to be closed.

Some firms have tried to ensure that their steps to move to cheaper labour centres will not affect British jobs.

Luqman Arnold, the chief executive of Abbey National, said yesterday that while 100 jobs will be filled in Bangalore by the end of the year there will be no jobs lost in its Scottish call centres.

Other banks have gone as far rejecting the outsourcing of call centre jobs altogether.

Royal Bank of Scotland has promised not to move any of its jobs, even though it has conducted a positive study into "offshoring".

HBOS also insists it will not outsource, describing its call centres as among the most efficient in the UK.