Australia and New Zealand Banking Group today said it had continued to expand its Indian offshoring operation over the past six months, a move that came in the context of rising technology costs across the board.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group today said it
had continued to expand its Indian offshoring operation over the
past six months, a move that came in the context of rising
technology costs across the board.
ANZ will progressively consolidate support functions including
technology and operations ... to increase scale and efficiency
ANZ financial statements
The bank's Indian division performs a number of back-office
tasks for it, including some technology work but also business
process initiatives and more.
The company said in its financial
results briefing released today for the six months to 31 March that
total personnel numbers in its Europe, America and India division
increased by 1240, "with the expansion of operations and
technology support activities in India". The bank's unions have
previously raised concerns about the movement of jobs to India.
The news came as the bank flagged both continued investment in
technology as well as an ongoing reshuffle of staff within its
technology and operation division.
ANZ's overall computer costs for the six-month period rose to
$351 million, compared with $308 million for the half-year to
September 2008, and $299 million for the same period to 31 March
2008.
The bank said the increase was mainly due to software purchases
($16 million) incurred from higher licensing costs in its Global
Shared Services division, as well as the cost of depreciation ($14
million). The remaining millions comprised a number of small
increases, including data communications costs up by $5 million and
written-off software, and rental and repairs.
The bank's Institutional division said it was continuing to
increase its investment in technology, with costs associated with
its "Rebuild and Refocus" program growing. In other sections of the
statements, ANZ said the Institutional division's rising technology
costs related to platform development in its Transactional Banking
and Markets segment.
The ongoing internal reshuffle of processes and staff has also
taken its toll on the bank, with costs of $218 million ($152
million after tax) being incurred from "process re-engineering"
within the bank's Operations, Technology and Shared Services
division.
It also allocated funds to an ATM network upgrade. "ANZ
will progressively consolidate support functions including
technology and operations within divisions and within ANZ's shared
services function to increase scale and efficiency," the bank said
in the briefing documents.
The bank has not yet appointed a replacement for its chief
information officer Peter Dalton, who now has a new innovation
position sitting beneath the bank's marketing chief and group
managing director of the Operations, Technology and Shared Services
David Cartwright, who is jointly managing technology at the bank
with deputy CIO Kieren Griffiths until the bank replaces Dalton
permanently.