Danish banks are increasingly processing customer bank loans via Lithuania and Poland, while IT services are now based in India. In total, Danske Bank, Nordea and other Danish banks have created more than 3,400 jobs in low-wage countries, according to figures Finans magazine has collected.
It is unclear how many Danish jobs have been closed down as a result of these transfers, but Finansforbundet (the Financial Sector Union in Denmark) has witnessed high levels of outsourcing to low-wage countries.
“We are concerned about losing Danish jobs to Poland and Lithuania. One speculates as to why this is happening, and it’s obviously because they can provide services at significantly lower costs,” says Kent Petersen, president of Finansforbundet.
A new trend in Danish banking is the outsourcing of traditional banking tasks. For example, a bank loan granted to a Danish customer will often be handled in Eastern Europe.
“It’s hard to know where this is going to end. Given that so many jobs are digitized, they can easily be transferred to locations where companies think it is cheaper to get them done,” says Kent Petersen.
Danske Bank says that in two-and-a-half years, it has moved 850 jobs to Lithuania. In addition, the bank has 750 IT employees based in India. This corresponds to 9 per cent of the bank’s total staff or 15 per cent of its employees based in Denmark.
Anne Melchiorsen, Senior Vice President at Danske Bank, says that jobs are not only being moved from Denmark. Rather, Danske is centralising functions that from all 15 countries where it operates. For Danske, these moves are all about running an efficient business.
“We operate on the basis that we are an international company, and we must continually deliver competitive solutions to our customers. It is also about delivering products at the right price,” she explained.
Nykredit, another major Danish financial player, is also starting to build up divisions in more cost-competitive countries. Nordea, which has a large presence in both Denmark and Sweden, has employed IT staff in India for a long time. And in recent years, 700 jobs have been moved to Poland, where employees primarily handle traditional administrative banking tasks.
“The advantage is that you get tasks done in one place, tasks that used to be divided between several places in the organization. Of course, costs are also an important element in assessing whether something should be outsourced,” says Niels Gregers Hansen, HR manager at Nordea.
Read full article in Danish at finans.dk
