The UK banking industry was on Friday scrambling to restore consumer confidence on business outsourcing to India, a day after a tabloid in London created a sensation by claiming that an Indian had leaked financial information about a number of Britons.
British tabloid The Sun had claimed that its undercover reporter was sold top secret information on 1,000 accounts and number of passports and credit cards for about £2,750 and was asked for another £275 later (approximately a total of Rs 2.5 lakh) by Delhi-based Karan Bahree.
Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage
In response, big banks and building societies, including Lloyds TSB, HSBC, and Barclays, were working with City of London police to address apparent security breaches, while reassuring customers that the business outsourcing to India was, by and large, a safe practice.
"We have strict procedures in those call centres whereby staff are required to put all belongings in a locker and can't take bags or mobile phones to work stations," said a Lloyds TSB spokesperson.
"They should not have access to information like passport details and bank passwords ... so we are investigating how this has happened. The first we heard about it was when we were contacted by City of London police. We are taking the allegations very seriously."
Lloyds TSB, like many other big banks, has sub-contracted its call centre operations to India.
While some banking officials reaffirmed their faith in the practice, City of London police warned that cases of identity theft from Indian call centres were not new phenomena.
"It was a practice we were aware of," said Orna Joseph, spokeswoman for City of London police. "But it's quite rare in the scheme of things... and we have been attempting to contact Delhi police over this."
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