Macquarie, Bank, HR, Outsourcing, Accenture, Australia

Australian banks turning to Accenture for outsourcing

Australia's largest investment bank Macquarie Bank Ltd. confirmed Thursday it has signed a contract with U.S. consulting and outsourcing company Accenture Ltd. to consolidate some of its global human resources functions.

The bank declined to comment on the terms of the contract, including whether it would involve moving jobs offshore, but said it flowed from a strategic review of the bank's HR department that operates across more than 70 employment jurisdictions globally.

"It's not a cost-cutting exercise it's a function of our growth to service all our international staff," said a Macquarie spokesman.

Macquarie has over 9,000 employees with around one third of these based outside Australia and the spokesman confirmed the project would encompass the bank's "back-office HR functions, including payroll and administrative functions," but wouldn't say where the new HR service center would be located.

Macquarie wouldn't say where the new HR service center would be located but other Australian banks have recently sought to cut labor and premises costs by moving jobs to India.

Last month, Australia's largest bank, National Australia Bank Ltd., said it would use Accenture's expertise to help move 175 data processing and administration jobs to India in early 2007, noting it was "reasonable to assume" more would follow as it seeks to be globally competitive.