blog According to the Hindu Business Line, one of the country’s main business papers, top-tier Australian bank ANZ may be looking to sell its Bangalore operations to Indian IT outsourcer Wipro, which has long had a relationship with ANZ. The newspaper reported over the past several weeks (we recommend you click here for the full article):
“India’s third largest outsourcer, Wipro Ltd. is in talks to acquire the IT assets of ANZ Banking Group. In India, ANZ Banking’s global IT operations include ANZ Operations and Technology Pvt Ltd. and ANZ Support Services India Pvt Ltd based out of Bangalore.
According to the ANZ Web site, the group employs close to 5,000 people in technology development, operations and shared services roles in Bangalore. The group has been servicing ANZ’s technology needs for over two decades and has now added operations and support functions as well.”
While the bank has already denied any plans to sell its Indian operations, and we doubt the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority would look entirely kindly on this kind of effort, it does also remain true that the appetite for outsourcing and offshoring remains strong at ANZ at the moment (including shifting existing Indian workers for the bank to companies such as Capgemini), and that it would be possible for ANZ to explore the option of divesting its Indian operations, given the long-term stability of the Bangalore facility and its already extensive and stable relationship with outsourcers like Wipro. Given these facts, personally I feel that there is likely to be some truth to the Hindu Business Line’s coverage — in the sense that I’m sure ANZ or Wipro have at least explored such a possibility internally, even if such ruminations didn’t eventually lead anywhere. Interesting times in Australian banking IT circles.