Bank to move call centre to India

High street banking giant HSBC is to divert calls from its UK customers to India and China because they claim workers there are better than those in the UK.

The bank's chief executive, Sir Keith Whitson, said: "They're quicker at answering the phone, highly numerate and keen to come to work every day. A lot have degrees."

HSBC employs 5,000 people in its UK call centres and the bank will have taken on 4,500 staff in India and China by the end of the year

Sir Keith, who was paid £1.5 million last year, said the move made financial sense because wages in India are 20 per cent of UK levels.

The banking union UNIFI admitted Indian staff were often better educated than British ones but said UK workers are "very good at their jobs". Liane Graves of UNIFI added: "British call centre workers are on £12,000 to £15,000 a year, but the pay in India is only 20 per cent of that figure."

Even though they will be speaking to someone thousands of miles away, callers from the UK will be charged local rates because the cost of diverting the calls by satellite is vastly outweighed by the savings made by paying lower salaries. About 15,000 calls a week from HSBC's small business customers are currently taken at a call centre in Hyderabad as part of a trial which includes processing thousands of cheques and direct debits there and in Guangzhou in China. The bank plans to expand the trial to include personal customers and is opening two call centres for them, in India and Malaysia, where salaries average £2,400 a year.

The bank also operates call centres in Leeds, Swansea, Edinburgh and Hemel Hempstead, along with seven other centres dealing with administration.

Five call centres open every month in India.