HDFC Bank moves to rural India; to hire 2,000 people for BPO

NEW DELHI: Country's largest private sector lender in terms of branch network, HDFC Bank is moving its BPO activity to the semi-urban area by hiring about 2,000 people in next two months.

The move is expected to bring down the operation by about 50-60 per cent primarily due to cheaper human resources and real estate cost.

The bank will soon open 400-seater BPO in Trupati, the second one after Nellor in Andhra Pradesh, sources close to the development said.

The Mumbai-based bank is expected to have 2,000 people working (at these two BPOs) by June, sources said.

Going forward, the capacity would be ramped up along with widening of the scope of operations, sources said.

This is the first such attempt by any major bank in the country, sources said adding, to start with these BPOs will do only data entry work of the bank, and hopefully of other bank's or financial intuitions, insurance companies eventually.

The Nellor Centre opened early this year, manned by 140 people all hired locally, is currently operational.

Lower human resource cost and real estate would result in significant saving of operations cost for the banks estimated about 50 per cent.

Talking about the social benefits, sources said, the idea is to create job opportunities locally and help the local youth earn his living without the need to relocate to metros.

Most of these places have a annual family income of Rs 12,000 per annum, whereas the bank is paying them four to five times that approximately (Rs 4,000-4,500 per month), sources added.