eFinancialCareers

Outsourcing companies say banks are asking them to conduct increasingly complex work in India. But reports suggest wages and staff turnover on the sub-continent are on the increase.

“We are doing more and more complex work, and over time we have got more credit analytics work, and work around complex deals in India,” Amanda White, managing director of business process outsourcing services provider Office Tiger, tells us. “Banks are very well aware that there’s a shortage of people domestically in the London and New York markets, and India has certainly got an abundance of talent.”

The Financial Times today reports that India is on track to become Goldman Sachs’ third largest office globally, hot on the tails of New York and London.

The firm’s Bangalore operation reportedly comprises 1,200 staff including highly skilled research analysts and modellers, as well as software designers and transaction processing staff.

The paper quotes Alok Aggarwal, chairman of Evalueserve, a corporate research outsourcing group, who says pay is on its way up and that Wall Street firms must now pay skilled Indians $20 to $23 per hour. This remains small change compared to the $100 an hour enjoyed by their counterparts in the US.

Aggarwal reveals that Indian staff are also discovering the joys of being poached to go and work elsewhere. The number of Indians working as research analysts for securities firms reportedly rose 60% last year, to 1,300 and staff turnover on the continent is said to be a fairly hefty 25% per annum.