- Friday, February 28, 2025
They plan to reduce dependence on external IT suppliers and make a bigger unit of internal tech performers on the subcontinent.
By: Shubham Ghosh
NATIONAL Australia Bank (NAB) and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) — two of Australia’s largest lenders — have decided to increase the size of their operations in India dramatically, reducing their dependence on external IT suppliers and making a bigger unit of internal tech performers on the subcontinent.
According to a report by Australian Financial Review, NAB will add up to 3,000 staff members to its India operations, indicating problems for suppliers such as Genpact, Infosys and IBM that presently provide a large number of workers for the bank in the South Asian country. NAB, the report added, has plans to carry out high-value work in its offshore innovation centres outside national capital Delhi.
“We have around 3000 third-party contractor resources in India that we’ve worked with for over 15 years, and we also want to bring some of them in-house and make them NAB employees,” Patrick Wright, NAB group executive for technology and enterprise operations, was quoted as saying by the Australian Financial Review.
CBA, on the other hand, has been widening its tech-focused Indian operations since 2019. It was then when it followed ANZ Bank’s lead to set up expansive centres in the South Asian country by poaching Pankajam Sridevi, its top Indian executive.
The Sydney-headquartered bank at present has 3,500 staff members working in a business park in Bengaluru, India’s information technology capital. It is looking for new premises in that city to expand its Indian tech ranks by 1,500 people to make it a 5,000-strong unit, the report added. It also cited local sources as saying that the CBA is seeking an option on a lease that could increase the headcount to 10,000 people in future.
A spokesperson for the bank said its operations in India “provides us with a large-scale pool of talent and direct access to world-leading expertise, particularly in the fields of technology and operations, and a location in a time zone that allows us to extend our operating window”, the Australian Financial Review reported.
The banks are roping in highly skilled engineers, architects and business analysts and particularly interested to utilise Indian expertise in areas such as artificial intelligence.
