Aussie bank raises concern over outsourcing

Melbourne, Aug 18: The Australian banking workers union has once again raised concern about security of the personal details of customers of Westpac Bank , if it outsources work to Indian companies.

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has expressed apprehension that Westpac Bank may close or drastically downsize workforce at Transactions and Unsecured Lending Operations centre in Sydney to cut costs.

It is believed the leading Australian bank is planning to shift the centre to India, leading to loss of almost 500 jobs.

The move would not only mean loss of 500 workers' jobs, the FSU has alleged, but could also expose the personal bank data of thousands of Westpac customers to overseas operators who are not covered by Australian privacy laws.

''All Westpac customers now face the possibility of having some of their financial information held offshore, with or without their permission, and with or without appropriate consumer and privacy safeguards,'' the union's secretary Geoff Derrick has been quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

The Australian Prime Minister John Howard is one of the high profile Westpac customers whose banking details could fall in unscrupulous operators' hands, the union said.

However, the bank has neither denied nor confirmed the move to shift the centre to India.

A Westpac spokesman told the Herald that the bank was having a 'preliminary look at those particular functions and whether they could be done more efficiently by external partners.'' ''With the entry of global players into the Australian financial market, we would have to be as efficient as possible in order to compete with them,'' the spokesman, David Lording, added.

Westpac was earlier said to be involved in one incident where the personal banking details of the bank and other banks were exposed in a security breach at a US processing centre.

UNI