As Andrew Verity reports the telebanking boom will bring thousands of jobs to towns

As Andrew Verity reports, the telebanking boom will bring thousands of jobs to towns where traditional industry has been devastated. Prudential, Bank of Scotland and Standard Life all announced plans to double the numbers they employ in telebanking in a bid to capitalise on a boom which has drawn in thousands of new customers every week.
Prudential is to create 1,500 jobs in a brand new call centre in Derby, quadrupling the numbers employed at call centres. Its existing centre in Dudley has already drawn in 115,000 new customers.An investment of pounds 25m will build a call centre in Pride Park, Derby, which be nearly twice the length of Derby County’s football pitch, giving a much-needed shot in the arm for the local economy. From Scotland’s perspective, we now have a very well-developed service sector. Since the old industries have gone, there’s a whole generation which is now used to seven-day opening, seven-day working, seven-day playing.”Wages for staff at call centres tend to be under pounds 10,000, with higher wages for more complex jobs such as selling insurance.

A telesales operator in banking will usually be paid pounds 4.60 an hour – or pounds 9,000 a year.Employers tend to ask only for a “customer service background” – which can include any retail job.Midlands accent `will not put customers off’Prudential’s decision to locate in Derby was yesterday seen as a rebuff to many in the industry who insisted customers would be put off by a Midlands accent.”We researched lots of factors before choosing the site at Derby and one was the regional accent,” said a spokesman for the Pru “It came out very well in the research. “We expect in 1988 to receive some 100 million contacts by phone with the customers. That makes it the fastest growing part of any financial services business.”The Pru’s move simply recognises that customers are now more confident with dealing over the phone.”John McCann, a spokesman for the agency, said: “The growth in the last five to six years has been staggering. Leisure groups such as EMI are also doing an increasing amount of business over the phone.According to the Glasgow Development Agency, Scotland alone will see jobs in call centres more than double to 37,000 by the year 2000. With 120 call centres already running across Scotland, the industry has quintupled in the last five years.While most traditional banks already offer some telebanking services, take-up has been small.

Yesterday it confirmed it will buy 114,000 square feet of vacant space next to its head office in Edinburgh and recruit a further 400 staff The bank hopes to open to business customers within a month. “Business has been phenomenal,” said Jim Spowart, managing director of Standard Life Bank.Halifax is also joining the telebanking bandwagon and plans to sell mortgages and life assurance over the phone later this year. Its call centre in Leeds, which currently employs 500 staff, is likely to expand up to its capacity of 1,300.The boom in jobs dealing with customers over the phone is not confined to banking. When the bank was launched in January, it expected to employ just 100 staff to handle calls.After receiving 65,000 calls in one month, taking pounds 165m in deposits and opening 23,000 new accounts, Standard Life has run out of space for much- needed new staff. Many new staff will be taken on as part of the Government’s “New Deal” on jobs for the unemployed.Mike Harris, chief executive of Prudential Banking, said: “I am confident we can continue to develop employment opportunities in Derby, building on the initial investment of up to 1,500 jobs over the next few years.”Bank of Scotland, which already employs 470 staff, is raising the numbers it employs to 710 in the next few months to cope with mushrooming demand for accounts run in partnership with Sainsbury’s.Standard Life, which opened its new bank just one month ago, is set to boost staff numbers far beyond its original expectations. When it comes to racial transformation, rugby is miles behind, dogged by accusations of racism. The cause was not helped when Andre Markgraaff, the national coach, was sacked last year for calling black rugby officials “kaffirs”.Mr Mandela says he is quite happy to testify.