Job losses in Lithuania as Barclays hands ops centre to HCL
Barclays is making job cuts in Lithuania as its operations centre is shut down and transferred to HCL Technologies.
According to Indian firm HCL, it is being named as Barclays’ preferred partner for IT infrastructure services.
Number of job cuts? No idea.
That sounds nice for HCL but in reality it’s a very bad day for some bank staff. As part of the deal, about 460 Barclays employees from the ops centre – which was established in 2009 – will transfer to HCL. But not all will get a job.
The agreement with HCL “forms the basis of the Barclays’ decision to conclude its operations in Lithuania, with remaining employees being offered redundancy”.
As is quite common in fintech, neither firm gave any thought to the implications of job losses. And neither firm specified how many job cuts there are.
Rahul Singh, president of financial services at HCL Technologies, comments: “We already employ more than 10,000 people in Europe, serving over 200 European clients. This new agreement will see HCL deliver transformational services to both Barclays and other major clients from Lithuania.”
Mariano Andrade Gonzalez, the head of Barclays Group Operations Lithuania (BGOL), says: “A decision has been made to optimise operations, meaning a number of roles could transfer to HCL Technologies, with whom we have worked closely for a few years.”
Gonzalez adds: “We are grateful to Lithuania for its hospitality, its talented specialists and a well-developed infrastructure, and we believe that we have done great things together, both in regard to business and in relation to the promotion of the country. We have always been, and will continue to be, ambassadors of Lithuania worldwide and will recommend Lithuania to our partners and foreign investors.”
Did Gonzalez start singing “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston as well? Wow. Rather than wishy-washy quotes give some details on the job cuts and reasons.
HCL says it will use its “significant” investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, including its automation platform DryICE, to improve the user experience for more than 80,000 Barclays employees across 26 countries. HCL will also be providing mainframe services to Barclays.
The contract between HCL and Barclays is yet to be executed pending banking regulatory notification, both companies hope to conclude the deal during the first quarter of 2019.
