Barclays to set up captive BPO in india:

NEW DELHI: British banking giant Barclays is setting up a 5,000-seat captive BPO unit in India, at a time when the global financial turmoil is forcing many companies to defer their outsourcing decisions. The bank, which sold its 50% stake in BPO firm Intelenet Global Services last year, had earlier asked the BPO firm to set up a 1,000-seat BPO facility under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. However, it has now decided to go on its own.

Barclays has brought in Sameer Chadha from Lehman Brothers’ Mumbai office as chief operating officer (COO) of the off shoring unit. An e-mail sent to Barclays Plc did not elicit a response. “As a matter of policy, Intelenet cannot comment on client engagements or project timelines. Intelenet will continue working with key Barclays accounts as usual. Barclays will continue to be a critical customer for Intelenet,” an Intelenet spokesperson said.

While most outsourcing analysts have sounded the death knell for the captive model of outsourcing, banks tend to follow it to maintain data confidentiality and to meet strict regulatory requirements. Citigroup, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, American Express and HSBC, all have their own captive off shoring centres in India.

Last year, Barclays and HDFC, both of which held 50% stake each in Intelenet, sold their stakes to SKR BPO Services, jointly owned by private equity major Blackstone and Intelenet management. Intelenet continues to provide off shoring services to Barclays. At the time of the transaction, Intelenet had agreed to set up a captive BPO unit for the financial services major.