ANZ National Bank, a New Zealand-based banking services provider, has announced plans to shift 500 jobs from the country to its Indian (Bangalore) operations by 2009. The outsourced operations include processing and operational functions. The bank aims to shift about 1 percent of its workforce to India by end-2008, and approximately 5 percent of its workforce by 2009.

The bank is expected to redeploy all the affected employees of the bank in alternative roles. In addition, the financial institution confirmed that customer contact jobs such as those in call centers will continue to be operated through Australia and New Zealand. The bank union has requested the organization to make few commitments before shifting jobs. These include guaranteeing all affected staff jobs with pay and conditions equivalent to their previous ones, providing job security for at least three years, and assuring that there will be no further offshoring in the next three years.

Since 1989, the bank has had IT operations—ANZ Operations and Technology—in Bangalore. The bank has about 1,800 professionals at its Indian operations. Of these, about 1,100 professionals are employed in IT development jobs, while 700 employees are engaged in providing back office and support services.