St George considers moving jobs to IBM

St George is currently considering the fate of a number of its IT employees, conducting a review on whether it should transfer them to service provider IBM.

St George and its parent Westpac have both had relationships with IBM for back-office work, with the latter re-negotiating its mega deal with the service provider at the end of 2010. Now it appears that St George is looking into using the firm to further spice up its in-house arrangements.

No decision has been made yet on whether to transfer St George employees, according to the bank; however, it was quick to say that if jobs were to be transferred, they would remain in Australia.

"Should we proceed with any changes, jobs will remain in Australia, and there are no plans for redundancies. The aim would be for staff to transfer across to our service provider, and stay within the St George office. If we go ahead, no employee would be worse off," the bank said in a statement.

This sort of employee transfer is not unusual in the banking industry. NAB shifted 400 employees over to Big Blue when it signed a new outsourcing deal in 2010.

The Sydney Morning Herald, which broke the news, said that around 200 employees would be affected. However, the bank said that there is no target or update in relation to the number of positions that could be involved.