HSBC to double its back-office staff in India

BANGALORE: HSBC has announced plans to double the number of back-office staff in India in the next two years as it boosts operations in low-cost Asian countries. Malcolm Wagget, Chief Operating Officer at HSBC Electronic Data Processing India, said HSBC was likely to employ up to about 4,000 staff in the country by 2004.

HSBC has its back-office operations in Bangalore and Hyderabad where handle a variety of work including accounting and insurance claims for group subsidiaries based in Britain and US. The banking giant's processing centres in China and India have taken on more back-office roles previously done by the group's principal members across the world, including Britain, Hong Kong, the US and Canada.

A growing number of global giants are rapidly setting up back-office units in India to handle global customer support and accounting and bill processing activities, taking advantage of its vast low-cost number of English-speaking graduates and engineers.

© Reuters