The Commonwealth Bank has admitted offshoring jobs to India and advertising for more after making hundreds of redundancies in Australia earlier this year despite making more than $10 billion profit.
The Fair Work Commission this week warned the bank, which initially tried to deny Australian jobs were being taken by foreign workers, to improve its transparency around offshoring after a review sparked by a complaint from the Finance Sector Union.
The FSU alleged CBA was advertising for near-identical roles to those scrapped when 283 job cuts were announced in June, resulting in the bank admitting that two roles made redundant in Australia were being performed in India, the Australian Financial Review reported.
CBA, which increased cash profits 4% to a record $10.25 billion in the last financial year, also responded to the review by removing 30 job ads for positions in India that had the same job titles as those cut from its Australian technology and retail banking services teams.
The bank increased its India-based workforce by 21% to 6,788 in the year to June, a 138% increase since 2022, when CBA first started reporting those numbers.
FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano said Australia’s biggest bank had tried to secretly offshore jobs while misleading staff and customers.
“Without challenge, these jobs would have disappeared without scrutiny. We held CBA to account, forcing them to come clean, exposing what the bank was trying to hide,” she said.
“This is about accountability. Australia’s largest bank cannot quietly ship jobs offshore while telling staff and customers otherwise. CBA is making billions in profit while trying to cut jobs in Australia and expanding operations offshore.”
A CBA spokesperson said that bank “undertook a review of the 283 roles” in response to the complaint made to the Commission.
“Two of the 283 roles reviewed were product owner roles located in Australia where the majority of the team and the work was being performed in India,” the spokesperson said.
“However, in June 2025 we provided a rationale that these roles were no longer required. This information was provided to the FWC (Fair Work Commission) and FSU. The review has been completed and has been resolved.”
CBA said in August that 700 of out 2,000 IT engineers hired over the past year were based in a centre in Bangalore, but is not the only Australian bank to have large numbers of staff in India.
The National Australia Bank has more than 1,000 employees in Gurugram, near Delhi, with 127 more tech jobs set to be sent to India and Vietnam, while Westpac is also outsourcing roles to India and the Philippines.
Header image: Left, one of CBA’s Sydney offices (CBA). Right, the CBA Bangalore office (Google Maps).
