Barclays to boost India headcount to 4,000

British bank Barclays will increase the number of jobs it outsources to India to 4,000 by the end of the current year from 2,700 now. The group is also looking to invest more in its domestic banking business in the country.

Speaking to ET, Frits Seegers, chief executive officer of Barclays Global Retail & Commercial Banking (GRCB), said: “This year, we will probably hire 2,000 people in India for our shared services operations. We will continue to grow our outsourcing as well as our domestic banking operations.”

The employee strength in the outsourcing operations already rose to 2,700 from 800. “It will probably be at around 4,000 by the end of this year,” said Mr Seegers.

Barclays’ domestic business includes retail and commercial banking, investment banking, wealth and technology. In India, the group already has around a million customers.

Early this year, the GRCB business was making a loss of half-a-million pounds a day. In its global results, the group has said that the impairment charges in GRCB business have increased to £213 million from £66 million in emerging markets. “It mainly reflects weakening delinquency trends, primarily across India and the UAE due to the deteriorating credit environments and portfolio maturation, especially across the retail sector,” the group said on Monday.

“When we saw the slowdown in the Indian economy, we had adjusted our plans and what we have done is to continue to grow. We were influenced by the lesser growth in India. Our Indian business will make some money next year. We are seeing an improvement in the early delinquencies in India. Commercial business has started making profits,” said Mr Seegers.

Globally, the group has posted profits before tax of £2.9 billion for the first half of 2009, up by 8% from previous year. When asked about the rationalisation of branches on the NBFC, where it currently has over 100 branches, Mr Seegers said: “Yes. I think the way we think about is there was a slowdown in the Indian economy. Our strategy hasn’t changed. We will continue to develop that business. But we will be doing that in a wiser and prudent way.”