Financial Services, IT

New Delhi, May 4 (UNI) Financial Services firms in the country witnessed a hike of 212 per cent in their the wage cost due to increase in salaries and addition to their headcount in the last quarter of fiscal year 2005-06, an ASSOCHAM study said.

IT and Banks also had to bear a higher personnel expense of 52.6 per cent and 26 per cent respectively, according to the Eco Pulse study of 150 companies.

The rise in the wage bill of the financial services, banks and IT impacted the overall cost of hiring and retaining the personnel which went up by over 31 per cent in Q4 of last year and by 17 per cent annually.

The personnel expense for financial services were up by 136 per cent for the entire last fiscal. For IT firms the increase in the annual wage bill was by 42 per cent but it went up to 52 per cent in the final quarter. Likewise for the banks the cost on this count went up by 16 per cent on yearly basis while for Q4 it was up by 26 per cent.

According to the survey, the drive to exploit the potential in the fast growing financial services business has attracted several new players in the recent past, thereby creating new employment opportunities and increasing the employee cost.

Financial services firms like Indiabulls Financial Services and India Infoline Ltd registered an increase of 398.91 per cent and 364.35 per cent in their staff cost respectively.

IT company Tata Consultancy Services Ltd recorded 153.93 per cent hike in staff cost whereas Infotech Enterprises' staff cost grew by 53 per cent.

Among banks, ICICI incurred an increase of 64.10 per cent followed by Union Bank of India by 51.51 per cent and Corporation Bank by 48.98 per cent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005-06.

On the annualised basis, Yes Bank topped the chart with a growth rate of over 137 per cent in the staff cost followed by ICICI Bank with 46.76 per cent.

The study pointed out that public sector undertakings, however, recorded a decline of 18.57 per cent and two per cent in the staff cost calculated during the last quarter and yearly basis respectively.

UNI CS PV VC1428