Westpac slashes 132 jobs, outsourcing to India, Philippines

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Australian multinational banking firm Westpac recently announced the reduction of 132 positions across its risk management, operations, and sales divisions.
Notably, half of these roles are being outsourced to India and the Philippines, a strategy aimed at leveraging the cost advantages and skilled labor pools available in these regions.
The decision to offshore 70 of these positions to service providers Genpact, Tata Consulting Services, and Concentrix underscores the financial pressures facing Australian banks amid slowing credit growth.
This move is part of Westpac’s broader effort to streamline operations and reduce expenses, with the bank having already eliminated 4000 full-time equivalent positions over the past two years in response to margin pressures and investor expectations.
The outsourcing initiative taps into the significant cost savings achievable through the lower salary structures in India and the Philippines, where skilled workers are available at approximately one-third the cost of their Australian counterparts.
However, the Finance Sector Union (FSU) raised concerns regarding the impact of these job cuts on employee morale and the potential risks associated with outsourcing core functions such as risk management and compliance.
“Westpac’s strategy of continually outsourcing jobs to external service providers does nothing for staff morale and sends the message that staff need to toe the line, or their jobs could be off-shored,” said FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano.
A Westpac spokesman explained that the firm changes the way they operate “from time to time,” which could then impact some roles and responsibilities.
“These changes are in head office and operational functions and represent less than half a per cent of our workforce,” the spokesperson added.