Netherlands-based financial services giant ING has established a new back office in the Philippines, according to Pasig representative Roman Romulo.
Romulo also expressed confidence that ING?s venture will help encourage other European companies to outsource to the Philippines.
?Right now, the bulk of our outsourcing business comes from American corporations,? he said.
ING Global Services and Operations Inc. has been established in the Philippines for the purpose of performing the back office activities in support initially of the Dutch giant?s Asia-Pacific operations.
Romulo said ING is the second Dutch multinational firm, and the fourth European-based global entity to outsource non-core, business support functions to Manila using the in-house center model, rather than independent BPO contractors.
He said The Hague, Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell; London, UK-based HSBC Holdings plc; and Frankfurt, Germany-based Deutsche Bank AG already have back offices in Manila providing a wide range of business support jobs.
Founded in 1991, ING provides banking, insurance and asset management services to more than 60 million clients in 50 countries. It has more than 84,000 employees worldwide.
In 2007, ING was tapped to help manage the $565-million Global Investment Program of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
The Dutch firm also used to have a life insurance business in the Philippines, but later sold the business to Pru Life Insurance Corp. of UK.
The Philippines? highly labor-intensive BPO industry is projected to directly employ 1.3 million Filipinos by 2016.
With a labor force of 780,000, the sector posted $13 billion in revenues in 2012, up by $2 billion, or 18 percent, from $11 billion in 2011.
This year, the industry is expected to generate $16 billion in revenues and add 146,000 full-time jobs, according to the Information-Technology and Business Processing Association of the Philippines.
The sector includes contact center services; back offices; medical, legal and other data transcription; animation; software development; engineering design; and digital content.
