ING has agreed a EUR400 million, seven-year document outsourcing agreement with UK firm Astron.
The intended outsourcing deal covers the processing of banking and insurance documents in the Netherlands and Belgium, like printing, scanning and mail dispatch. Up to 800 ING employees will be transferred to Astron under the agreement.
The deal represents the second large outsourcing agreement as part of ING’s IT efficiency programme announced in November 2005. Under this, the bank expects to transfer approximately 2200 employees to outsourcing partners for total annual cost savings of approximately EUR230 million.
In Belgium ING is currently in negotiations with the labour unions on a collective labour agreement in which the social consequences of sourcing are laid down. The transaction with Astron is pending advice from the Works Councils and negotiations with the labour unions on employment conditions and is expected to be sealed in the third quarter.