London, June 08: Notwithstanding opposition from various quarters over outsourcing to India, major British banks and insurance companies are planning to shift up to two lakh administrative, processing and clerical jobs to India, a leading recruitment agency said. Adecco, the recruitment firm, has predicted the transfer of 100,000 jobs in call centres alone from Britain to India by 2008, but many union officials believe the final figure could be twice as big.
Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Prudential are all experimenting with overseas operations and have plans to move more staff abroad. By the end of this year, HSBC will have moved a further 3,600 jobs - in addition to the 5,400 it has already exported - to offices in China, India and Malaysia.

"Figures like a couple of hundred thousand have been floated. That may be excessive, but we're talking tens of thousands potentially being exported. People are looking seriously at clerical to back-office transaction processing, as well as value-added jobs, and saying where else can we do them more cheaply." Phil Middleton, head of retail banking at Ernst and Young said.
But the move has alarmed the workers which are now demanding urgent meetings with government to stop the exodus. Bureau Report