IT majors vie for slice of UBS' offshoring contract

Switzerland-based banking and wealth management firm UBS is considering outsourcing about 5,000 jobs over the next two years, according to people familiar with its plans. This signifies an opportunity to win new businesses for Indian IT vendors such as Wipro and Infosys Technologies that already work with the Swiss bank.

UBS recently appointed consulting firm McKinsey to advise it on the outsourcing process. The decision to outsource thousands of jobs is in line with the ailing bank's cost-cutting strategy. UBS chief executive Oswald Grubel has already announced 7,500 job cuts across the firm till 2010.

The Swiss bank has accumulated more than $53 billion in writedowns in the global financial crisis and had to receive financial aid from the Swiss government. The bank is an important client for both Wipro and Infosys. While Wipro, India's third-largest software-services firm by revenues, gets over $50 million in annual revenues from UBS, second-ranked Infosys derives about $40-50 million. Apart from these firms, other vendors for UBS include TCS, Polaris, Cognizant and Headstrong.