SunTrust strikes outsourcing deal with Canadian company

SunTrust Banks Inc. has signed a 10-year agreement with Toronto-based Symcor Inc. to outsource "a significant portion" of the bank's back-office banking operations.

As part of the deal, about 1,500 SunTrust employees from various locations will be Symcor employees, according to a company spokesman, 54 positions could be eliminated, which includes an unspecified number in Memphis.

In addition, Symcor will handle SunTrust's check clearing, lockbox processing and statement production functions.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the statement, nor did the bank disclose possible cost savings as a result of the deal. The bank told SunTrust employees the move would largely be transparent.

The back-office duties will be transferred Aug. 1, affecting SunTrust employees in Baltimore, Richmond, Va., Durham, N.C., Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, Miami and Orlando, Fla.

Symcor will purchase or lease those facilities from SunTrust in those locations, which adds to the Canadian company's existing operations in Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Charlotte, N.C., and Los Angeles.

Symcor now provides similar back-office services to five of the 15 largest North American banks.

For SunTrust, the move is part of the bank's company-wide cost-cutting initiative announced last spring, dubbed "Efficiency in Execution," or E Squared, company spokesman Mike McCoy said.

Last year, the bank sold branches and office space across its southeastern U.S. footprint in a sale/leaseback agreement, and cut staffing.

"This is consistent with the rest of our E Squared program," McCoy said.

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2008/04/14/daily33.html

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SunTrust strikes outsourcing deal with Canadian company