TCS Unit Inks 15-Year Pact With Scottish Widows

Diligenta, a subsidiary of software services giant Tata Consultancy Services, on Tuesday said it has secured a 15-year deal with Scottish Widows, the life and pensions business of Lloyds Banking Group (LBG).

While TCS did not disclose any financial details, LBG said about 1,000 staffers will move to Diligenta as part of the deal.

“Under the terms of this agreement, Diligenta will support Scottish Widows to provide end-to-end policy administration services for its 4 million heritage customers,” TCS said in a statement.

When contacted, LBG in an emailed statement said: “To provide a seamless handover of service, LBG will transfer some of its operational processes and IT applications, along with...1,000 employees servicing heritage life, pensions and investment customers, who are expected join Diligenta at existing LBG sites under a TUPE arrangement.”

The statement added that LBG is “fully engaged” with its recognised unions.

Diligenta already manages more than 11 million life and pension policies in the U.K. on its end-to-end policy administration platform, LBG said.

In a separate statement, Unite – a union representing staff across Lloyds Banking Group -- said the decision “to outsource around 1,000 staff to Diligenta” was a “betrayal”.

Unite said LBG had informed the staff on Tuesday that it is outsourcing its closed book operations from its insurance division to TCS Diligenta.

“The Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical workforce will simply be sold by the bank and their employment transferred to the third party outsourcing subsidiary,” it said, adding that this will impact staff in Edinburgh and Bristol.

"The wholescale transfer of 1,000 Lloyds Banking Group staff to Diligenta is nothing short of a betrayal of these workers," Rob MacGregor, Unite's national officer, was quoted as saying.