Policymakers, bankers and BPO industry leaders stressed outsourcing back office by the banks to create large-scale employment, cut operational cost and increase efficiency in the financial sector. Talking to BSS, they said if the banks outsource their back-office activities, it will give a boost to the country’s BPO sector and help create large-scale employment.
Moreover, the banks will be benefitted more as their operating cost will reduce and efficiency will improve substantially, they observed. Terming BPO a prospective sector, State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak said the government has been providing policy support for boosting the country’s fast-growing sector.
“We want to establish paperless office and build cashless society while the BPO companies could help us fulfill both the objectives,” he said. The state minister said three things — mindset, understanding and trust — are very important to flourish the BPO sector.
It is the prime responsibility of the banks to change mindset to outsource their activities, while Bangladesh Association of Call Centre Organisations (BACCO) should build trust, he added. BACCO President Wahidur Rahman Sharif said the country’s BPO sector is now generating over US$ 400 million revenues from both local and international clients and the sector has created more than 50,000 employments in a decade.
The banking sector holds a great potential for BPO sector, which is now more equipped and matured enough to take the opportunity to deliver the world- class outsourced service support for country’s vibrant financial sector, he added. Director General of BIBM Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman laid emphasis on providing training to create skill manpower in the country’s BPO sector.
Meanwhile, the bankers and experts at a recent workshop on `Outsourcing in Financial Service Sector’ held at Bangladesh Bank Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) here underscored the need for outsourcing in financial service sector to improve operational performance, cut operational cost and increase efficiency through better consolidating and centralising functions.
Outsourcing enables organisations to improve operational performance, reduce operational cost and increase efficiency through better consolidating and centralising functions, they told the function.
Leveraging ICT for Growth and Employment of the IT-ITES Industry (LICT) Project, Bangladesh Association of Call Center and Outsourcing (BACCO) and Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) jointly arranged the workshop. State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Director (Training) of BIBM Dr Shah Md Ahsan Habib, LICT Project Director Md Rezaul Karim, LICT
Policy Adviser Sami Ahmed and BACCO President Wahidur Rahman Sharif, among others, spoke at the workshop. Chairman of Devnet Ltd AK Mahbub and Associate Professor of BIBM Md Mahbubur Rahman Alam presented two separate papers on the prospect of financial sector outsourcing.
The experts put forward a set of recommendations to eliminate obstacles to outsourcing in the financial sector. The recommendations include change of mindsets of banks to outsource their activities and update of outsourcing policy to widen scope of banks for outsourcing activities.