HSBC: Spreading Wider

One of the earliest banks to set up captive offshore facilities in India,

HSBC was busy in growing both its BPO and IT services arms. With more than 8,000

people in its four already existing facilities in Hyderabad, Vizag and Bangalore,

the BPO arm, HSBC Electronic Data Processing, focused on adding more people to

its Kolkata facility set up during the year. In addition, HSBC Operations and

Processing Enterprise offers BPO services for the bank's domestic operations.

Just like its peers, Citigroup and American Express, HSBC too focused on

moving more debt collections work to India. While the Hyderabad facilities

primarily catered to loan processing mortgages, the Vizag center concentrated on

credit card and mortgage back office processes. Despite agreement with some

British unions, migration of jobs from the UK to India continued though,

ironically, there were rumors that its employees in Andhra Pradesh might join a

union formed by Center for BPO Professionals (CBP) in association with Union

Network International (UNI).