ANZ and Finance Sector Union clash

FSU argues bank's plan to open Manila operations hub could cost 100 jobs in Australia.

A bank spokesman said the union's estimate of local job losses was "purely speculative".

"It's disappointing that the FSU is scaremongering on jobs, given the amount of work we have done with them on offshoring," he said.

"The primary driver of this is growth in our Asian business and we'd expect minimal impact on jobs in Australia."

ANZ announced the Manila push on Tuesday, saying the facility would support its growth ambitions in the region, as well as last year's purchase of the Royal Bank of Scotland businesses in six Asian countries.

ANZ chief executive, Asia Pacific, Europe and America, Alex Thursby said it made sense to have an operations hub in Manila, one of the world's leading cities for business processing.

The Manila operation will open in July and is expected to employ 300 staff by the end of the year, adding further back-office capability to the bank's four existing hubs in Melbourne, Wellington, Bangalore and Suva, as well as two back-office centres in Singapore and Hong Kong.

View the full story in The Australian.