2000 BPO jobs coming back to America?
By Pulkit Sharma

The India media presented it as a loss of 2000 jobs in India which would go back to their client in USA. Sallie Mae, the biggest student loan provider in USA, presented their pullback in patriotic terms.  Sallie Mae CEO, Albert Lord, told the American media that it would stop BPO operations in India and Philippines and move 2000 jobs to USA to create jobs for locals.

Sallie Mae CEO, Albert Lord was quoted as saying: “For 37 years, we have been dedicated to helping America’s students enhance their lives through an investment in higher education. The current economic environment has caused our communities to struggle with job losses. They need jobs, and we will put 2,000 of them into U.S. facilities as soon as we possibly can”.

The truth lies somewhere in between.

American business newspaper Wall Street Journal is reporting that under the new Obama Administration, Sallie Mae may not have enough business in USA to justify 2000 workers in call centres in India and Philippines. The Wall Street Journal was quoted as saying: “The Company (Sallie Mae) has been dealing with a budget proposal from the Obama administration that would diminish the role of private lenders in federal student loans. Investors have worried that the Virginia-based company will lose a major source of income if the proposal is adopted. Sallie, which makes private and federal student loans, gets nearly one-third of its income from the federal student loans it makes for the government. It had $34 billion in private loans at the end of the fourth quarter and $146 billion in federal student loans.”

British Outsourcing Guru Mark kobayashi-Hillary blogged: “I believe that this story has the whiff of a firm having some trouble with their offshoring plans and deciding to create some positive spin by shutting down the Indian operation, but if we see it developing into a trend then it could become a serious worry.”

And finally when American TV asked Sallie Mae CEO if he would never outsource again, Albert Lord replied: “It would be foolhardy for me to tell you that I won't ever do anything again."