The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued guidelines in 2006 on `Managing Risks and Code of Conduct in Outsourcing of Financial Services by Banks’. These Guidelines, inter alia, stipulate that the Banks should not outsource their core management functions including internal audit, compliance functions and decision-making functions like determining compliance with Know-Your-Customer(KYC) norms for opening deposit accounts, according sanction of loans and management of investment portfolios. Accordingly, the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) are outsourcing certain non-core activities.
The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) had staged a ‘Dharna’ on 29.5.2013 against the alleged outsourcing of regular jobs in the banking sector. However, no tangible losses occurred in PSBs as a result of the ‘Dharna’ since the branches/offices of all PSBs functioned normally.
In the past, strikes have also been called by bank employees unions where outsourcing of jobs by PSBs has, interalia, been raised as one of the issues. This includes recent strikes by United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) on 22.08.2012, 23.08.2012, 20.2.2013 and 21.2.2013. The loss by way of delays in disposal of business etc. on account of absenteeism in various banks and disruption in services is not quantifiable.
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