Outsourcing gets a boost as global banks expand captives

MUMBAI: Top multinationals banks continue to set up new back-office units or expand their existing captive operations in India even as the model is


India's top 10 BPOsMore Infotech StoriesPerformance of top IT cosThe rise of multinational IT in IndiaKey facts on India's IT industryunder criticism for being high cost and less efficient than third-party vendor operations. Wells Fargo, Ingersoll Rand and Standard Chartered are some of the banks and companies that are setting up or expanding their back-office centres in India. Standard Chartered, for example, is setting up a new knowledge process outsourcing centre in Bangalore, while Wells Fargo is expanding its captive operations in India for technology services and BPO. The three are among the 11 firms that have set up new units or added more staff to their existing units in India during the September quarter, taking the number of captives being set up globally to an 18-month high, according to MarketVista, a quarterly analysis of outsourcing trends by Dallas-based Everest Research Institute. In all, around 28 firms set up captive operations in Asia, Europe, Latin America with India being the most popular destination. “The number of new captives being set up are far more than divestures, indicating a revival in the market,” Ameet Singh, vice-president for global delivery, Everest, told ET. German firm Kontron, which is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of embedded computer technology and a supplier to OEMs, is also setting up a contact centre in Bangalore to provide sale and tech support to its Asia-Pacific operations.

-AKHILESH KUMAR SHARMA
PGDM III SEM