Citibank to beef up BPO subsidiary in RP
Posted August 04, 2008MANILA, Philippines--Financial services firm Citibank says it is ramping up its business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in the country in response to demand for customer support services worldwide.
Established in 2004, Citigroup Business Process Solutions (or Citigroup BPS) is a subsidiary of Singapore-based Citibank Overseas Investment Corp.
The Philippine subsidiary provides support services to Citibank's overseas operations including consumer banking and wealth management segments.
Citigroup BPS currently employs around 1,200 workers. The company announced a partnership with training school Excel Asia to provide agent-staffing services starting last January.
The company did not disclose specific numbers on how much workers it will need to add, noting that demand varies depending on client projects that come up different parts of the year.
"Since Citigroup BPS caters to almost all products offered by Citibank, both locally and internationally, we regularly deal with significant staffing and hiring requirements," said Maurice Ryan Bevera, Citigroup BPS sourcing officer.
Bevera said the company partnered with Excel Asia to help meet these requirements the soonest time possible.
Excel Asia provides a free two-week training course for college graduates and other call center applicants. It has around 40 customers that regularly sources agents from its supply of trained would-be agents.
The company also trains "near-hires" subsidized by a government scholarship program. Excel Asia said it endorses an average of 100 trained near-hires every month to its call center customers.
Source: INQUIRER.net, July 28, 2008
by Lawrence Casiraya
