'Bangalore will become 3rd largest office of Goldman Sachs'

'Bangalore will become 3rd largest office of Goldman Sachs'

London, Sept 19: Bangalore will soon surpass Tokyo as the third largest office of the global investment banking major Goldman Sachs by head count, according to company executives.

The shift underscores the surging talent pool in India capable of performing everything from information technology support to sophisticated analytic research, 'The Financial Times' reported, adding that it also reflects the pressure on securities firms to trim compensation costs.

US-based Goldman's Bangalore office employs close to 1,200 people and is on track to soon overtake Tokyo, which employs 1,500, officials of the company said. That would make Bangalore Goldman's third largest office by head count behind New York and London.

The Bangalore workers are all full-time Goldman employees, something the bank says helps ensure quality. Some securities firms have chosen to outsource research and other functions to third-party providers.

Goldman, of course, is far from alone in building up staff in India. J P Morgan chase has about 6,000 employees there and may add more, reflecting its larger size and retail operations. Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and others also have growing operations in India.

Goldman's Bangalore staff includes software designers, transaction processing staff and, increasingly, highly skilled analysts who produce modelling and other data that appear in Goldman research reports.