2008 belongs to the emerging markets  January 10, 2008
In 2001, Goldman Sachs identified the immense growth potential of four emerging destinations - Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRICs).

Currency Reversal? A Look Back at 2007  December 20, 2007
This year will perhaps be remembered most for the weakening U.S. dollar and the strengthening Indian rupee, which has risen more than 13 percent against the dollar this year.

Carbon Nuetral First Movers to Get the Advantage  December 13, 2007
While companies have not been overly eager to embrace green policies, they will have less of a choice going forward.

Banks Eager for New VAT Rules  December 06, 2007
The European Commission is set on modernizing value-added tax (VAT) rules, a move that would essentially save financial services institutions millions of euros and give a boost to outsourcing.

More Insurers to Fully Outsource Management of Investment Assets  November 29, 2007
Finding it increasingly challenging to handle newer alternative investments and products such as hedge funds, insurance companies are turning more and more to outsourcing, says a report released by State Street.

Legal Process Outsourcing Comes to the Fore  November 15, 2007
Infosys' entry into legal process outsourcing has shone the spotlight on the up-and-coming industry. Infosys expects to attract some 1,000 U.S. and Indian lawyers in the next five years to support clients in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

Philippines Goes for High-Value BPO  November 08, 2007
Embattled Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo this week participated in a carefully crafted public relations event in the country letting companies know it is serious about making the country hospitable to those who would take their business processes there.

Data Management to be Top Priority for Banks  November 01, 2007
Deutsche Bank recently finalized a deal with Sutherland Global Services to provide data management services for its North American operations.

Europe, Asia Lead Outsourcing Growth  October 25, 2007
Despite a decrease in U.S. outsourcing contracts for the third quarter, demand for outsourcing, particularly IT and business process outsourcing, remains strong in the Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) markets.

Tata Consultancy Sees Revenue Gains Despite Challenges  October 18, 2007
Tata Consultancy Services seems to have found a way to offset the impact of an appreciating rupee, an increase in labor costs, and a tightening U.S. banking and financial services market. India's largest outsourcer saw its net profits rise this quarter to $313 million, a 25.7 percent increase from a year ago.

With Sepa Near, Banks Slowly Warm to Sourcing Payments  October 11, 2007
The introduction of Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) next year is spurring some banks to tap strategic sourcing partnerships to handle payments.

Outsourcing's Next Wave  October 04, 2007
The cities of Bangalore, New Delhi, Manila, Mumbai, and Dublin have almost become outsourcing brand names. Over the last couple of years, cities across the globe have sought similar status, doing anything to get themselves labeled as an outsourcing top spot.

IT Services Spending Up With Growth in Outsourcing  September 27, 2007
Increased demand for innovative IT services may do a little to soften concerns over the U.S. economy's financial market crunch and housing correction.

Indian Service Providers Tap South Africa  September 20, 2007
High bandwith costs notwithstanding, South Africa is gaining ground as an offshore outsourcing destination. Some of those eyeing the country are top Indian service providers HCL Technologies, Wipro, Infosys Technologies, and Tata Consultancy Services -- they see it as a good near-shore alternative to clients in Europe as well as in the Middle East and the United States.

Outsourcing Goes Green  September 13, 2007
Service providers are starting to look more green with pressure mounting from governments, from U.S. and European clients who have their own pressure from environmentally sensitive investors, and from within as cost cutting becomes ever more important.

Forrester: Price Still Leads in Decision to Outsource  September 06, 2007
Although companies are looking for business benefits from their IT outsourcing deals, price is still the No. 1 driver, according to a Forrester Research/TPI report released last week.

Indian BPOs to Feel U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis  August 30, 2007
A Wall Street Journal article warned Tuesday of challenging times ahead for Indian BPOs brought on by the U.S. subprime mortgage upheaval.

Indian Outsourcers Move Near Shore  August 23, 2007
Indian outsourcers are eager to be wooed by countries in Europe and elsewhere. Non-India delivery centers are looking pretty good to Indian service providers as wage costs increase and as European clients turn more to near-shore centers to handle sophisticated business processes in their own language.

Are Financial Firms Ready for MiFID?  August 16, 2007
The majority of financial services companies are not yet ready for the EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), says a survey by law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse.

FAO Offshoring: It is Not Just About Labor Arbitrage  August 02, 2007
Offshoring in finance and accounting outsourcing (FAO) is moving beyond labor arbitrage to more judgment-intensive processes, says a study last week from Everest Research.

Companies Mix and Match F&A Delivery  July 26, 2007
The service delivery model of choice for companies' finance and accounting (F&A) functions is fast becoming a mix and match of several options.

India Holds on to Top Ranking, for Now at Least  July 19, 2007
While India is still the top spot for outsourcing, its high attrition rates, infrastructure issues, rising wages, and currency appreciation are working to the advantage of its top contender China, said a study last week from Frost & Sullivan.

SLA Woes  July 12, 2007
Companies are having difficulty keeping up with their service level agreements (SLA), according to a new study by Oblicore, a provider of SLA software.

FSOkx: Hedge Fund Outsourcing Poised for Growth  June 28, 2007
The hedge fund outsourcing market seems in position to gain momentum, according to a study released this week by FSO Knowledge Exchange (FSOkx).

The Contract  June 21, 2007
The Wall Street Journal came out with a report this week on a few rude awakenings greeting financial services executives when they outsource their business processes to a service provider.

Australian Finance Firms Set for Next Step in BPO  May 24, 2007
Just as financial markets have been expanding and integrating on a global scale, financial services companies have been stretching operations out to all corners of the world and rethinking the way they manage their business.

Insurers Weigh BPO Challenges  May 17, 2007
More and more, insurance companies are considering business process outsourcing a key part of their enterprise strategy. In an increasingly competitive environment, effective use of outsourcing may enable an insurance company to focus more on core business issues and less on back-office processing.

Human Resource Outsourcing on the Rise  May 09, 2007
It is not new news that financial services companies are focused on improving the efficiency and standardization of their human resources services. Add to this increasing competition for talent and it is not surprising that human resource outsourcing (HRO) is once again on the rise.

Mortgage Providers Gear Up for Increased BPO  May 03, 2007
It is not the environment it once was for mortgage providers. As sales for homes continue to drop, so do mortgage volumesand profit margins.

Europe Leads BPO Growth  April 26, 2007
For the first time since 2004, business process outsourcing (BPO) is once again showing significant gains. Global BPO contract value is now close to $18 billion, a 17 percent gain from the previous quarter, according to NelsonHalls BPO Index for the first quarter 2007.

FAO Shows Growth but Concerns Remain  April 19, 2007
To be sure, the Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) industry is experiencing unprecedented growth, doubling in size the last two years and forecasted to continue at a 30 percent growth rate for the near-term, according to a 2007 report by Everest Research Institute.

India Holds Rank in Annual Global Services Index  April 12, 2007
Despite wage increases, India's improvements in talent supply and business environment were enough to keep it positioned well ahead of other markets, according to A.T. Kearney's latest Global Services Location Index. The same goes for China.

Cost Is Not Everything  April 05, 2007
Cost is a clear outsourcing driver for financial services firms, but those that do best seem to be those that don't have it on top of the list when deciding which supplier and indeed which location to go with.

Hedge Fund Infrastrucure: To Buy or Not to Buy?  March 22, 2007
Not all hedge fund managers want to buy a full front- to back-end solution. Some are choosing the build route and are paying attractive salaries to lure accountants, compliance officers, operational managers, and marketers from traditional asset management firms.

Busy Road Ahead for Hedge Fund Administrators  March 15, 2007
Some industry experts are pointing to State Streets recent purchase of Investors Financial Services to prove M&A activity to come among the increasingly congested ranks of hedge fund administrators. State Street, with more than $340 billion in administered assets, has essentially bought its way into a top spot in hedge fund servicing.

Are Offshore Jurisdiction Hedge Funds Rules Enough?  March 08, 2007
Hedge fund issues have been on the front burner recently with some officials urging more transparency and control over-and money from-these largely unregulated investment pools and others rejecting any such move on the grounds of the industry's positive effect on global capital markets.

Cayman Islands Holds Rank as Offshore Hedge Funds Leader  March 02, 2007
Last year saw another record year for the Cayman Islands' hedge funds industry, which has seen about a 20 percent growth per year for the last five years. The Cayman Islands ranks as the pre-eminent domicile for hedge funds, with almost one in two registered there.

G-7 Weighs Hedge Fund Regulation  February 22, 2007
The finance ministers and central bankers from the world's wealthiest nations took a cautious tone Feb. 9-10 when addressing hedge fund industry risks. Germany, who is rotating head of the G-7 this year, has made dealing with hedge funds a priority given its significance in major financial markets.

Missing Metrics in Sourcing Relationships  February 15, 2007
Financial institutions don't yet have the metrics at hand to calculate the actual value of their outsourcing arrangement. There is a huge potential here that is only starting to be tapped.

Banks: Outsourcing Networks for Tomorrow's Edge  February 08, 2007
Banks are stepping up efforts this year to outsource their network to third-party providers in the hopes of keeping their capability ahead of the curve.

Companies Build Up India One Oasis at a Time  February 01, 2007
Not much deterred by tales of a struggling infrastructure and projections of huge shortages in skilled labor, financial services firms do not appear to be slowing their sourcing to India.

BPO Market Struggles to Deliver on Promises  January 25, 2007
Reflecting on another year spent managing their long-distance relationships, financial services firms are starting to realize they will have to wait a little longer before the business process outsourcing market truly delivers.

IT Security Shifts to Service Providers  January 18, 2007
Managed security service providers are gaining ground in the financial services sector.

UK to See BPO Surge in 2007  January 11, 2007
While the mammoth U.S. business process outsourcing (BPO) market slows in 2007, the United Kingdom is likely to see huge strides in BPO, according to the National Outsourcing Associations latest annual survey.

India Focusing on Security  January 04, 2007
Consumer fears of credit card fraud and ID theft are not going away any time soon despite highly publicized efforts to alleviate consumer fears. And consumers loyalty appears to be running less deep.

Its All in the Contract  December 21, 2006
Financial services firms in 2006 stayed true to predictions and shifted IT development and maintenance operations overseas. At the same time, data security remained a clear focus even as costly breaches continued to made headlines.

South Africa Touts BPO Offering  December 14, 2006
South Africa is stepping up its efforts to attract business process outsourcing (BPO) to the country. It remains to be seen, however, whether South Africa will meet its 2008 goal to be ranked as the world's third BPO center after India and the Philippines.

Challenges Ahead for Big Six and Indian Providers  December 07, 2006
As offshore Indian outsourcers and the traditional big six service providers battle for business in a period marked by smaller, shorter contracts, there are for now at least differences in what each offers financial services firms.

Outlook Good for BPO Despite Drop in Contract Values  November 29, 2006
For the first time in its somewhat short history, the total contract value (TCV) of BPO deals dropped 15 percent to $4.5 billion for this years third quarter compared to the same period last year, according to the latest quarterly index from TPI.

Financial Services Firms Slow to Outsource Reference Data Management  November 23, 2006
Financial services institutions have been catching on to the efficiency and accuracy gains of investments in reference data management as they face increasing competitive and regulatory pressures. But while investments continue to swell in the back office, financial services institutions have been slow to fully outsource these services.

Retail Banks Cautious on Offshore BPO Services  November 09, 2006
While interest in BPO services continues to grow in the retail banking sector, banks still lag behind most other business sectors in tapping the benefits of offshoring, according to an October report from Datamonitor.

HRO Versus FAO  October 27, 2006
Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) and Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) have both been hot trends in the recent years. Which one is hotter?