US financial institutions, along with telecommunication1

A CONGRESSIONAL supporter of the country’s booming business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry has predicted that the emerging No. 1 US bank, JPMorgan Chase and Co., would soon aggressively offshore more back- office jobs to the Philippines.

“We do not see any significant fallout from the recent collapse of a number of  US banks, or their absorption by larger rivals,” said Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, chairman of the House information and communications technology committee.

“When American firms slash costs due to mergers or an economic slowdown, the first to go tend to be high-paying US-based jobs. They hardly bother to reexamine toward scaling down their low-cost outsourcing activities here, at least not on the basis of cost,” he said.

US financial institutions, along with telecommunication, Internet, direct broadcast and cable-TV providers, are among the biggest clients of Philippine BPO firms.