Finextra Research: Latest fintech news, analysis, interviews, features and opinion by industry experts

Prudential outsources Belfast call centre to Capita

Insurance group Prudential says it is outsourcing its customer sales and services operations in Belfast to BPO firm Capita instead of shifting the work to India and other parts of the UK.

17 August 2006

News/Call centres

Norwich Union to shut down Liverpool call centre

Insurance firm Norwich Union is closing down its customer call centre in Liverpool, leading to the loss of 321 jobs, and is shifting the work to other sites in the UK and to its offshore operations in India.

25 July 2006

News/Call centres

ABN Amro deploys voice verification system

Dutch banking group ABN Amro is rolling out a voice verification system designed to identify customers over the phone without the need for passwords and PIN codes.

20 July 2006

News/Call centres

Barclays axes back office jobs in retail banking shake-up

Barclays is cutting 1200 back office jobs over the next 18 months as part of a restructuring of its retail banking operations in the UK.

28 June 2006

News/Call centres

Indian call centre worker arrested for HSBC fraud

A worker at HSBC's Bangalore call centre has been arrested on suspicion of selling the confidential bank account details of UK customers to fraudsters.

28 June 2006

News/Call centres

UK backlash against offshore call centres brews

A corporate UK backlash against offshoring call centre operations could be brewing after energy supplier Powergen said it was pulling the plug on its call centre operations in India and bringing the jobs back to the UK.

16 June 2006

News/Call centres

Bell Canada inks TD Bank IP telephony contract

TD Bank has signed a seven year contract with Bell Canada for the implementation of an outsourced IP-based telephony system across its call centres. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

28 April 2006

News/Call centres

Bank of America cuts 1900 call centre jobs

Bank of America is closing three US call centres, leading to the loss of 1900 jobs, as it continues to consolidate its operations with the MBNA credit card unit it acquired earlier this year.

11 April 2006

News/Call centres

Scottish Widows contracts with Sabio for telephony and technology support

Scottish Widows has contracted with Sabio for technology and telephony support across its UK contact centre operations.

03 February 2006

News/Call centres

Norwegian consumers rejecting minibank and telephone for Internet channel

Annual statistics from Norwegian bank processing firm EDB Business Partners indicate a first ever fall in national consumer use of minibank and telephone banking, and a corresponding surge in Internet banking and shopping.

31 January 2006

News/Call centres

Alliance and Leicester axes 350 back office jobs

UK bank Alliance and Leicester (A&L) is axing around 350 staff from its back office operations under plans to increase efficiency and cut costs at its retail banking division.

26 January 2006

News/Call centres

Sloppy call centre security leaves customers vulnerable - Intervoice

Call centre employees in the UK will readily accept less stringent identity checks in place of forgotten security passwords, according to mystery shopper research conducted on behalf of US voice automation outfit Intervoice.

25 January 2006

News/Call centres

Customers want calls answered in the UK - Alliance and Leicester

The vast majority of customers still want their calls to be answered by staff in the UK and would not be happy to have their accounts serviced at overseas centres, according to research commissioned by British bank Alliance and Leicester (A&L).

23 January 2006

News/Call centres

S1 sells Edify business to Intervoice

S1 Corporation is selling its Edify business, which supplies interactive voice response (IVR) technology to financial firms, to Dallas-based Intervoice for $33.5 million in cash.

21 November 2005

News/Call centres

Abbey reviewing Bangalore call centre

UK bank Abbey is considering closing its call centre in Bangalore, India and bringing the 1000 jobs it originally offshored back to Britain, according to press reports.

27 October 2005

News/Call centres

UK Web banking customers still want the personal touch

Despite the growth in Internet banking, many UK consumers still want to contact their bank by phone, according to research published by The Henley Centre and BT which estimates that £4.6 million may be lost each year as a result of customers failing to get through when calling to enquire about new accounts, credit cards or loans.

21 October 2005

News/Call centres

ABN Amro calls on Avaya for global IP telephony project

ABN Amro has signed a five-year contract with Avaya to support the Dutch bank's migration to Internet Protocol (IP) telephony across 14 countries.

04 October 2005

News/Call centres

PassMark acquires voice authentication firm Vocent

Californian online security start-up PassMark Security has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Vocent Solutions, a provider of voiceprint authentication technology. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

24 August 2005

News/Call centres

First direct launches online chat service

HSBC's direct banking subsidiary first direct has launched an online chat facility that allows prospective customers to communicate with bank staff in real time over the Internet.

19 August 2005

News/Call centres

Indian trade association to probe Australian customer data theft

India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) says it will investigate recent claims that undercover reporters were able to buy confidential customer data from call centre workers in the country.

17 August 2005