Barclays bags ABN, India gets jobs

Barclays, Britain's third-largest bank, may shift 10,800 full-time jobs to low-cost destinations, including India, after its acquisition of ABN Amro Holdings NV.

The deal is expected to lead to a reduction of 12,800 jobs over three years after the world's largest financial services takeover is completed. This would reduce expenses by $3.8 billion, Barclays and ABN Amro said in a joint statement today.

ABN Amro and Barclays could also see a top-level reshuffle in India. At present, Mani Subramanium is the chief executive officer for Barclays Bank India and Samir Bhatia is the managing director, India and the Indian Ocean region. Romesh Sobti is chief executive officer of ABN Amro India.

"Part of the expected staff reduction will be through establishing shared services and offshoring those positions to low cost locations, such as India, where new staff will be recruited at ABN Amro's existing ACES operations," the statement said. ACES is an infotech operations subsidiary

At present, Barclays Bank and ABN Amro have a combined workforce of about 2,17,000, comprising 1,23,000 employees at the British bank and 94,000 employees of ABN Amro but excluding the headcount of LaSalle Corp. ABN Amro in a statement has said that it has agreed to sell its Chicago-based LaSalle unit to Bank of America for $21 billion.

ABN Amro Bank, which employs about 4,000 back-office workers in six offices in Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi, had earlier announced plans to hire as many as 2,000 people in India by March.

Analysts said the merger created a win-win situation for both banks in India. They said the merger was triggered by Barclays' ambition to increase its exposure to Asia, particularly India, where it is in the process of launching full-scale retail and commercial banking.

The merger will give Barclays, which has three branches in India, ready access to ABN Amro's 28 branches in the country. Barclays will also get access to ABN Amro's low cost deposit base of around Rs 11,864 crore and an advances portfolio of Rs 15,073 crore in India.

On an average, the Reserve Bank of India gives foreign banks around 12 branch licences annually. Under such circumstances, the ABN Amro acquisition will give Barclays an advantage when it comes to distribution network.