Citigroup to outsource investment

Citigroup is moving further away from its 11-year focus on marrying brokerage and banking by outsourcing some investment services offered to US branch customers to outside advisers and shifting up to 550 employees to new roles, states Financial Times.

The move in Citi's wealth management business, which manages about $30 billion on behalf of customers, underlines the desire by the troubled bank to focus on larger businesses and overhaul its strategy in the low-growth US retail banking market.

Under the new plan, Citi will begin referring some wealthy customers who currently deal with 550 brokers based in some of its 1 00-plus branches to independent financial advisers.

Essar group company Aegis BPO has acquired an 80% stake in Sri Lankan outsourcing company Ismart Timex for an undisclosed amount, reports The Business Standard.

The balance 20% continues to be with its parent Timex Garments, Aegis said in a statement.

"Ismart Timex is one of the largest BPO service providers in Sri Lanka and we expect it to grow exponentially to more than double in voice and back office in the next one year. Aegis will now offer services from 35 delivery centres across the world," Aegis MD and CEO Aparup Sengupta said.

Hospital chain Fortis Healthcare has outsourced its IT systems and processes for all its hospitals to HCL Technologies for five years, according to Economic Times.

The financial details of the deal were not announced. As per the agreement, HCL Tech will deploy hospital information systems and enterprise resource planning solutions to standardise operations across Fortis' 28 hospitals in the country.

This deal makes Fortis the first healthcare delivery company in India to completely outsource IT applications and infrastructure management, Fortis said in a statement.