Capita saves jobs in Belfast (maybe)

In other insurance-industry call centre news, Prudential Insurance has outsourced its Belfast, Ireland, call centre to BPO firm Capita. The move is good news for those in the United Kingdom, as that area has since quite the number of call-centre job losses lately, and bad news for India, for whom the Prudential posts had been presumably been destined.

Prudential and Capita signed a three-year contract, worth around £40 million (approximately US $75.25 million), with Capita for the provision of a range of life and pension sales and administration services. The deal will see Capita manage a number of sales and administration services for Prudential’s UK business as well as extant international life assurance business services Capita already supplies. More importantly in the employment sphere, Capita will take over management of Prudential’s customer call centre in Belfast, which the insurance firm had previously slated for closure in April in order to move jobs to India.

No changes have been announced for the approximately 450 staff currently working in Prudential’s customer services, PruDirect and support services operations in Belfast. No doubt whilst simultaneously exhaling a sigh of relief, Prudential UK chief executive Nick Prettejohn stated truly that recent times have “very difficult” for all staff in Belfast. Nevertheless, another 200 jobs will be eliminated from Prudential offices in Bristol and in the London head office of Prudential’s Egg internet banking operation.