Infosys says no lay-offs after RBS project loss; 3,000 employees to be reallocated

Infosys has said it will ramp-down about 3,000 jobs following Royal Bank of Scotland’s decision to cancel the project to set up a separate bank in the U.K.

RBS announced last week that it will not pursue its plan to separate and list a new U.K. standalone bank, Williams & Glyn (W&G), for which Infosys was a key technology partner.

“Infosys has been a W&G program technology partner for Consulting, Application Delivery and Testing services, and subsequent to this decision, will carry out an orderly ramp-down of about 3,000 persons, primarily in India, over the next few months,” Infosys said in a statement.

An Infosys spokesperson clarified that these jobs are not being cut and that the employees will be reallocated to other projects.

RBS is a key relationship for Infosys and the company looks forward to further strengthening strategic partnership and working with them across other strategic and transformation programmes, it added.

While Infosys has not specified the impact of the cancellation, market analysts peg it at around $40 million.

The loss of the five-year 300-million pound RBS deal could force Infosys to further downgrade revenue guidance for FY2016-17. Infosys had in July slashed annual sales outlook citing weak demand to 10.5-12 per cent in constant currency terms, lower than the previously estimated 11.5-13.5 per cent.