London: Amid protests from trade unions, two leading British banks Lloyds TSB and Barclays have announced their plans to move more than 1,000 banking jobs to India as part of outsourcing to cut down costs.

Lloyds TSB said it planned to close its Newcastle call centre, employing 986 people at the end of 2004 and Barclays stated a review of its Hastings operation.

The bank said it planned a big expansion of its Indian operations with the aim of employing 1,500 people by the end of 2004, compared with 250 today.

A Lloyds bank spokesman said, "This is a very difficult decision and has only been made after considerable thought and discussion. We operate in a fiercely competitive environment and it is vital that we find ways of running our business effectively and competitively."

Lloyds said it aimed to manage job losses through natural turnover and by redeploying staff elsewhere within the group.

Barclays said it had begun a review of its Hastings centre, which employs 350 people. It said it had made no decisions but admitted outsourcing to India was an option.

The moves follow HSBC's recent decision to transfer 4,000 British call centre and back-office jobs to the subcontinent.

HSBC's decision will close five processing centres. Earlier this year, the bank also announced it would axe 1,400 head office jobs.

Lloyds said its Newcastle centre had an annual staff turnover of 30 per cent, making it difficult to achieve continuity.

The bank insisted that staff in India would be paid "competitive" wages, after unions claimed they could receive salaries of less than a sixth of their UK counterparts.

However, Banking union Unifi described the move as "profit without conscience".

National officer Bernadette Fisher said, "This is a callous move by Lloyds TSB, jumping on the outsourcing bandwagon accelerated by HSBC earlier this month.

"It shows that despite all Lloyds' statements on social responsibility, it has no respect for staff, customers or local communities."

Unifi said it was angry that the bank did not discuss a plan it put forward to mitigate the impact of the decision. It said Barclays had dealt with the possible outsourcing of jobs from Hastings in "a far better manner".

Dai Davies, the union's director of communications, said staff would face considerable uncertainty over the coming months. The union regretted Barclays' decision to "jump on the outsourcing bandwagon", he said.

PTI