Offshoring arrives - and it's for analysts as well as the back office
Mumbai is a long, long way from Greenwich, Conn. But for larger hedge funds, faced with spiraling administrative and regulatory costs and increasing competition for brainpower, the offshoring potential of the Subcontinent is more and more alluring. These days, there's less hesitation to offshore critical tasks, and not merely for back-office functions. What has kept hedge funds from taking the plunge is less the barrier of distance than one of trust. But that barrier is eroding.
Proponents of offshoring believe that most, not some, tasks can be accomplished abroad - the only limitation extending to those positions that require a physical presence. "What we can't do from here is give you a haircut," notes Arthur Flew, chief executive of Karvy Global Services, an outsourcing firm based in Hyderabad, India. "But we can schedule the appointment."
While hundreds of hedge...