The Executives of the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) are in Bangalore for a week to meet possible partners for doing their IT work. This step of out-sourcing has been taken by the HBOS to cut-down on its expenditure. However, a leading newspaper reveals that the trip of 11 Executives has cost the company 45,000 pounds. 

The company however declared "...any arrangement would take place only after full consultation with unions Accord and Unite and be phased over two or three years”. All the HBOS customer service centers are in UK and there are no plans to change all that. Also adding this work is not connected with the proposed deal with Lloyds TSB Group. But if the merger is a success then more jobs are likely to be lost.

In September, Lloyds TSB was to acquire HBOS for about12.2 billion Pounds, after the mortgage lender's shares lost over half of its value. The take-over may still be on as the shares of HBOS are still down by 80%.The company got stuck in the storm of the stock Exchange fall of Lehman Brothers. The air is still clouded with the police investigating allegations that talks had started before the Stock Exchange was informed. According to The Financial Services Act, any merger talks must be revealed to the market to avoid any suggestion of insider trading or share price manipulation.