AS MANY as 200,000 jobs are expected to be lost in the UK to offshore companies by this year, with most of these going to India.
Companies such as HSBC, Royal Sun Alliance, Prudential and Centrica have transferred large numbers of posts to the third world, where wages are often only a fifth of those in the UK, to cut costs.
Last year Norwich Union's owner, Aviva, announced
plans to cut its costs by £350 million and it is very likely that this will involve further job losses on top of the existing cuts involving 4,000 staff. However, the companies already involved in this offshoring have not found it a recipe for success.
Lloyds TSB and HBOS have already stopped routing customer telephone enquiries to Indian call centres and have reverted to the UK along with ditching the use of call-centre scripts after customer complaints reached high levels.
Existing off-shoring is an accident waiting to happen, as it is only a matter of time before serious crimes are committed involving the theft of customers' confidential information. Criminals are reportedly bribing Indian call-centre workers to get access to account and credit card details.
The answer could be for companies to come to Scotland. Scotland offers a world-class workforce, and is a leading European banking centre, home to the headquarters of four leading banks. The Scottish financial services sector is the biggest success story in the Scottish economy in the past 30 years and offers companies access to unrivalled numbers of high quality staff.
The international financial services industry based in Scotland has a long-held reputation for innovation and excellence and provides financial products and services to businesses, private and public organisations, and individuals across the world.
The Scottish Government is encouraging investment in the growing financial services industry and is keen to create and safeguard jobs.
It is very clear that Scotland has a great deal to offer the world's financial services companies and will increasingly be the first choice when relocating or creating new business ventures.
• Scott R Coghill is director of CompliancePoint in Glasgow
