Details on Barclays IT Offshoring

Barclays is adding 1,500 information technology jobs in Singapore, while cutting some 2,000 IT slots in the UK, according to a published report citing the chief executive of its retail and commercial bank.

The executive, Frits Seegers, reportedly said Singapore was chosen to be "the technology heart for Barclays." The bank also has Asian technology centers in Shanghai and in Pune, India.

The new Singapore center, which is dedicated to Barclays' retail and commercial banking businesses globally, currently has 110 staffers. Another 300 to 400 positions are set to be added by the end of 2009 and the headcount will rise to 1,500 within five years, according to a report in the local Straits Times, cited by Computer Weekly.

Early this year Barclays informed employees that the bank planned to eliminate 1,800 permanent and temporary IT jobs in the UK by 2010, including about 700 in the first nine months of this year.