Australia’s Westpac cuts 132 jobs across divisions, says trade union

(Reuters) -The Australian banking trade union said on Thursday that Westpac Banking (NYSE:) Corp, one of the country’s top lenders, has cut 132 jobs across divisions, with some of these roles being shifted to companies in India and the Philippines.

From the bank’s risk division, 62 roles are being reduced at a time when the country faces an “unprecedented level” of scams and cybersecurity threats, the Finance Sector Union (FSU) said in a statement.

The job cuts across the risk and operations divisions come on top of the 20 layoffs in January at its sales support unit in the Mortgage Services division, which were outsourced to Concentrix Corp (NASDAQ:), FSU said.

“It’s completely wrong to suggest the Risk (division) changes are linked to Fraud and Financial Crime. That is a totally different division,” a Westpac spokesperson told Reuters in an email response.

The bank, without clarifying the exact number of jobs affected, said “these changes are in the head office and operational functions, and represent less than half a per cent of our workforce”.

“Westpac’s strategy of continually outsourcing jobs to external service providers does nothing for staff morale and sends the message that staff need to toe the line or their jobs could be offshored,” FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano said in a statement.

About 50 roles from the lender’s operations unit will be transferred to information technology companies such as Genpact (NYSE:) Ltd, TATA Consulting Services and Concentrix.

“Instead of running an integrated banking operation, Westpac now looks more like a patchwork of third-party providers,” Angrisano said.

Westpac’s shares ended 0.6% higher at A$26.35, their strongest level in more than two years, outperforming a 0.2% climb in the heavyweight financials sub-index.