Bank of America to hire 1000 in India

BANGALORE: Bank of America Corp said it would set up a wholly owned Indian subsidiary for its back-office operations and aimed to employ 1,000 people in the unit by the middle of 2005.

The bank, which has already outsourced a number of jobs to emerging markets, said it expected to set up Continuum Solutions Pvt Ltd in Hyderabad in the second quarter of 2004.

The news could fuel the debate over outsourcing in the U.S. presidential campaign, where Democratic frontrunner John Kerry has hit out at companies that move jobs to countries such as India.

BoA's unit, which aims to hire 500 people by December 2004, would provide back-office support for processes within the bank's main business segments, including consumer, commercial and corporate, and enable the bank to cut costs, the company said.

BoA, which has faced protests over decisions to outsource jobs overseas, is already among the biggest clients of leading Indian software exporters such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's largest and second-largest exporters, analysts said.

The bank has said the move to set up the Indian subsidiary would mean some job losses from its global operations, but BoA officials said in October the company had not decided which functions would be moved to India.

Analysts say two-thirds of U.S. banks outsource work to developing, low-cost countries such as India, China and Russia.

In Europe, HSBC, ABN AMRO and Deutsche Bank have been among the companies to shift work overseas. Western banks have outsourced IT work, human resources work, securities back office processing and some research.

© Reuters