Lloyds TSB extends outsourcing contract

Banking group Lloyds TSB expanded its outsourcing programme today after signing a deal which further increases its workforce in India.

More than 2,000 jobs are already set to go overseas by the end of the year and today the bank announced 100 new back office jobs will be created in Delhi after it extended a tie-up with outsourcing company Xansa.

Lloyds TSB said the new jobs were never held in the UK but were being set up abroad to cut costs and make the company more efficient.

The deal, worth an estimated £10m (€14.7m), was signed with Berkshire-based Xansa, which already employs hundreds of overseas procurement staff for the bank.

The move has angered members of Lloyds TSB Group Union who fear 10,000 jobs will eventually be sent overseas. Currently the bank has 77,000 UK employees.

On November 16 mortgage lender Cheltenham & Gloucester, which is owned by Lloyds TSB, announced plans to transfer 300 jobs to India by the end of next year. Some of the roles will come from C&G’s Tachbrook Park base in Warwick, resulting in the closure of the site.

On Monday employees staged a protest outside the building after the union said hundreds more jobs could be lost.

A union spokesman said: “These developments concern staff and it is our long term aim to keep campaigning to keep jobs in Britain. A big UK corporate company like Lloyds TSB should have a responsibility to keep jobs in the UK.”

Xansa’s relationship with Lloyds TSB began last year when it started providing back-office support for it.

It has three Indian three offices in Pune in the west, in the capital Delhi and in Chennai, south India, and lists Boots the chemist, Tesco and Royal Mail among its clients.

Finance director Gordon Stuart said: “We have demonstrated our ability with back office processes and this five-year deal is an extension of our existing relationship.”