The news that leading investment banks are outsourcing some analyst functions to India is the ideal solution for breached Chinese walls. Giving a nod and a wink to analysts on a video conference link-up is wholly another ball game from doing it in person, while the chances that an India-based analyst wants to get his kids into a New York kindergarten are slim (although in a global world, this should not be ruled out entirely).
Office Tiger, an outsourcing company founded by American Joseph Sigelman four years ago and based in Chennai (formerly known as Madras), now boasts six of the top 12 investment banks as clients.
A lot of the work the company does is computer modelling and number crunching that would typically be carried out by junior analysts on Wall Street or in the City.
The location may be remote but the beat is every bit as tough. Commanding above-market salaries (but considerably below Western rates), the Indian outsourcers – many of whom have postgraduate qualifications – toil all night in an effort to coincide with Wall Street hours.
All of which gives the command “we need it by yesterday” a new sense of poignancy.
