Financial institutions, feeling the crunch of lower trading volumes and reduced commissions, are using every trick in the book to cut costs and boost profits. Offshore outsourcing is the latest answer to reduced technology budgets. More and more, when executives at U.S. financial institutions find newspapers plastered with headlines about heightened tensions between Indian and Pakistan, and the nightmarish threat of nuclear war between the long-feuding Asian neighbors, they not only consider what such a conflict would do to the people of the region but also to their businesses.
That’s because U.S. firms are increasing their involvement with offshore outsourcing: the practice of either establishing an application-development and maintenance facility in another country or hiring a third-party provider to build software based on established specifications. Offshore outsourcing is on the rise
