Banks rushing to give American jobs away

Big Surge Expected In Offshore Outsourcing By Banks, Study Says
Information Week

Banks in the United States and other countries will dramatically increase the percentage of their IT budgets devoted to procuring technology services from offshore providers operating from low-wage countries such as India and China over the next three years, according to a new study from consulting firm Deloitte.

Offshore tech spending by banks will increase from the present 6% of the banking industry's $44 billion total annual IT budget to 30% by 2010, according to Deloitte.

Offshoring tech work offers big savings as programmers in India, for example, are paid anywhere from 40% to 80% less than their U.S. counterparts.

Deloitte says banks can save 40% on most IT projects by moving them to an offshore service provider. The study also claims that media reports of rampant wage inflation eating into the cost savings offered by offshore outsourcing are overblown. Deloitte says 55% of the banking IT executives it interviewed for the study expect their offshoring costs to rise by less than 10% this year, while 36% expect the costs to remain flat or decline.

Hmmm.... Has anyone bothered to ponder the wisdom of allowing countries that really don't like us, access to our most sensitive financial software?

Programmers who are paid "40% to 80% less" than American programmers are also ripe for moonlighting for their government, other governments, and/or criminal elements who would be very generous in their compensation packages. Imagine a rogue programmer planting a back door into a bank's software, allowing for all kinds of mischief. What about installing a clandestine subroutine that would allow an outsider to corrupt, alter, or even shut down critical software. or introduce Trojan horse programs to other "clean" software?

Mark my words, one day the outsourcing vulture will come home to roost, and the results will not be pretty.