The Sunday Times FT - AVIVA to set up UK finance sections here

AVIVA Insurance, the sixth biggest insurance company in the world, is setting up sections of its UK-based finance division in Sri Lanka.

The company which already has a BPO unit under a partnership agreement with WNS will be setting up as an independent unit next year.

In addition to the 300 accountants and 50 lawyers they already have working for them through WNS, AVIVA is planning to recruit 200 more accounting professionals next year and 150 lawyers within the next two years.

This is a part of expansion plans in the South Asian region. The infrastructure has been set up by WNS under a build, operate and transfer contract with AVIVA. The staff members who are currently working with WNS will be transferred to AVIVA global Services (Sri Lanka) next year.

Group Executive Director of AVIVA UK, Patrick Snowball said that the prevailing security situation of the country didn’t deter AVIVA from investing in the country. “One recognises that security is a relative thing, I mean we have had more bombs going off in London than that in Colombo. … It was an issue that we debated but it was not an issue that drove the decision one way or the other,” said Snowball. AVIVA is very positive of the solution the related parties are working for and “in the meantime we are happy to go on investing” he said.

Snowball also said that they would like to see the situation improve as quickly as possible even though based on all the information and the research that was done the risk level was within the company’s accepted levels.

AVIVA will have 9000 people in Sri Lanka and India servicing the UK office of which 7500 are accountants and legal officers and 1500 in the technology sections of the company. This is equivalent to 20% of its UK workforce where the company has 32,000 employees.

Out of the total recruitment 500 professionals will be working in Sri Lanka while the majority would be in India. However AVIVA does not expect to bring many more jobs to Sri Lanka as according to Snowball the availability of human resources in the required capacity is limited in the country.

The criteria for recruitment are mainly CIMA qualification with full accountancy qualifications. Snowball said that they found the level of professionalism in the Sri Lankan professionals to be on par with the UK levels and standards are very high as they are trained to UK accountancy standards. According to him AVIVA will gain from this venture as they are able to access a very high quality work force and pay standard Sri Lankan wages.

Further AVIVA is bringing more and more complex processes into Sri Lanka giving the staff a wider exposure. As the employees of AVIVA are a part of the global finance department there are very attractive career prospects. According to Snowball the employees will get the opportunity to not only work in the UK but in any of the 22 countries AVIVA is present.

AVIVA is also looking into capitalizing on the high levels of technology in India where they are planning to recruit 1500 technology related professionals. “We have to select the proper location for the proper job; that is why we have the finance jobs here and the technology jobs in India,” said Snowball.

AVIVA has invested over a billion pounds setting up the infrastructure last year and this year the company has invested 50 million pounds in investing in the Eagle Insurance company.

The company is now looking at a plan to accommodate all the employees in the two companies which for tax and legal purposes will have to remain two separate entities. However Snowball said the company is considering the possibilities of bringing both the companies into one building.