Bank BPO Agents banned due to bad credit
By Juan Dela Cruz

It is well-known around the call center circles in the Philippines that getting hired for bank call centers involve detailed probity tests. They do stringent background checks and recently have been checking credit history as well. At least two bank BPO’s will reject agents who have bad personal credit histories.

Call centers in the Philippines are invariably lenient when it comes to applicant credentials. Based on experience with a number of call centers my sources have worked for, they rarely delve deeper than an applicants submitted documentary credentials and calling one’s previous employers. However, call centers for HSBC and JP Morgan Chase are of different breed. They ask their applicants and new hires to fill out a disclaimer form which forces people to divulge their credit card information for further investigation.

One of my sources in JP Morgan Chase HR tells me that in keeping with their culture of integrity, they will be forced to decline an applicant if he has defaulted credit card debts even if the applicant carries outstanding credentials. The same managerial source also tells me they conduct periodical credit history checks for all employees to find out how they doing financially. In case, employees lied about owning a credit card when hired, they will get terminated. Worse, in case they are found that they had run away from their credit card obligations even from other banks at anytime while working for JP Morgan Chase, they also get terminated. In one recent incident, a JP Morgan Chase agent got terminated because he lied about a couple of other credit cards he owned and was not paying his dues. He only divulged 2 credit cards which he still faithfully pays. Unfortunately, his name was included in the last periodical check JP Morgan conducted and was found out and this lead to his dismissal.

HSBC, on the other hand, is a little different. They have become very strict when it comes to background investigation. My source who previously worked for HSBC a couple of years ago told me they hire a third-party company to do a comprehensive investigation of an applicant’s history which covers everything from one’s very first childhood school up to the last known employer. They also conduct criminal background checking to ensure no one with integrity issues get through their ranks. This was implemented only after HSBC got implicated in one of the biggest call center scams over 2 years ago when an Indian HSBC call center agent was arrested because he siphoned off over 200,000 pounds from customer’s credit card to his accomplices accounts. One week after this incident, HSBC Philippines required all employees to re-submit their credentials and launched a full investigation.

Needless to say, those who have blemished records, financial arrears and shady background have come to avoid HSBC and JP Morgan in the Philippines because they won’t even get a foot in the door.

(Email me news and tips at 1delacruise at gmail dot com)