NAB plans 1,000 more offshore hires as Australian bank jobs are cut
NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA — National Australia Bank is planning to hire more than 1,000 additional workers across its India and Vietnam operations, adding to a current offshore workforce of approximately 7,000 employees — 5,000 in Gurugram and Bengaluru, 2,000 in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City — that already represents 18% of the bank’s global headcount.
According to a report from Financial Review, the expansion comes as NAB simultaneously cut 170 domestic roles while adding 237 offshore positions.
NAB offshore headcount hits 7,000; 1,000 more planned
NAB is not alone in its acceleration. Commonwealth Bank of Australia has grown its India headcount from 2,854 in 2022 to 6,788 employees. ANZ employs approximately 9,000 staff in Bengaluru and 2,000 in Manila — 28% of its global workforce — and is simultaneously removing approximately 3,500 Australian roles.
Australia’s major banks are collectively constructing offshore technology workforces now representing 18-28% of total headcount — a structural shift from supplementary cost-reduction operations to core technology and product delivery that the banks themselves brand as “innovation centres.”
“It is absurd to suggest that Australia does not have enough qualified professionals,” said Nicole McPherson, national assistant secretary of the Finance Sector Union.
India tech salaries climb, narrowing cost advantage
The offshore cost advantage driving Australian bank expansion into India is compressing: Bain & Company partner Nick Therkelsen described the Indian technology market as “highly competitive,” with top firms paying “near-US level salaries” — a dynamic that shifts the commercial logic from cost arbitrage toward talent access and scale.
NAB’s framing supports the capability-over-cost argument: the bank positions its offshore operations as “innovation centres” focused on software engineering, technology support, and digital product roles, with CEO Andrew Irvine visiting Indian operations directly in March to reinforce the strategic positioning.
The 1,000+ planned additions include roles insourced from contractors previously engaged through third-party providers, converting external vendor relationships into direct employment at NAB’s offshore centers.
The compression of India’s cost advantage is not slowing Australian bank offshore expansion — it is changing its justification from cheaper to faster and more scalable, while the domestic workforce bears the visible cost of the transition.
For BPO and IT services firms in India and Vietnam, the major Australian bank buildout represents growing demand in both scale and complexity — but one where clients are increasingly insourcing rather than outsourcing, making GCC enablement, talent transition support, and specialist capability development the more durable commercial opportunity than traditional staff augmentation.
The insourcing trend converts former BPO clients into direct employers — and former outsourcing contracts into competing hiring pipelines.
