3 Years After Taxpayer Bailout, Bank of America Ships Jobs Overseas

Source: Mother Jones

3 Years After Taxpayer Bailout, Bank of America Ships Jobs Overseas
Your account information will now be accessible to call center workers in the Philippines.
—By Josh Harkinson | Tue May. 29, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

Bank of America, which last fall announced plans to lay off 30,000 workers, is about to go on a hiring spree—overseas.

America's second-largest bank is relocating its business-support operations to the Philippines, according to a high-ranking Filipino government official recently quoted in the Filipino press. The move, which includes a portion of the bank's customer service unit, comes less than three years after Bank of America received a $45 billion federal bailout.

Roman Romulo, deputy majority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives, bragged to the Manila Standard Today earlier this month that the Philippines "has secured its place as the world's fastest-growing outsourcing hub." Romulo pointed out that BofA is the last of the "big four" US banks to move their business-support network to his island nation, where the average family makes $4,700 a year.

A spokesman for Bank of America, Mark Pipitone, was unable to provide additional information about the bank's offshoring plans on Friday. "We have employees and operations where we can ensure that we best serve our customers and clients," he told me in an email.

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/bank-of-america-outsourcing-call-center-philippines