Sydney-based lender Westpac is planning to move 83 jobs from its business consumer lending, business consumer services and group finance divisions in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, to India under a cost-cutting programme.

The decision comes a week after the lender decided to cut 65 jobs from its retail branches. This is despite a forecast annual profit of $7.1bn, expected to be announced on 4 November 2013.

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According to the Finance Sector Union of Australia (FSU), the practise of moving Australian jobs overseas while deriving profit from the domestic market is unfair to local communities, staff and customers.

FSU said Westpac can afford to invest in Australian jobs and skills, and the bank has an obligation to do so.

A Westpac spokesperson said the job movement would occur next year, reducing the number of roles across the Group by approximately 80.

"However we are fully committed to supporting those employees impacted and we make it a priority to redeploy as many staff as possible or retrain our staff into new roles," the spokesperson added.

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Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and National Australia Bank (NAB) have also transferred jobs overseas.

At the beginning of October 2013, ANZ was forced to withdraw plans to offshore 590 call centre jobs to New Zealand and Manila.

Among the four major Australian banks, Commonwealth Bank is the only lender to keep all its jobs within the continent.

 

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