Barclays brings anti-fraud jobs onshore with new Sunderland unit

Barclays has said it is setting up a new fraud detection centre in the northeast of England, creating 200 new jobs and bringing together a range of operations currently handled in various locations in the UK and overseas.

At its new operation in Sunderland, the bank will handle calls from customers worldwide whose bank accounts or cards have potentially been affected by fraudulent activity.

This trend for UK companies to 'reshore' certain activities from overseas units back to domestic centres has gained pace in recent years, partly because of the reduced financial competitiveness of some previously low-wage countries but also in a bid to improve service quality.

Last year, a report by PwC said reshoring could create up to 200,000 jobs in Britain over the following decade, mainly in the textiles, electrical equipment and machinery manufacturing industries.

Barclays plans to hire 200 staff for its new Sunderland anti-fraud centre, in a variety of management and call-centre positions. It already employs more than 1,200 people in the city, having operated a large customer contact centre there for more than a decade. In February, it announced the creation of another 100 jobs in Sunderland as part of the rollout of a video banking service.

Fergus Trim, director of Broadoak Asset Management, which manages the 1m sq ft Quorum Business Park in Newcastle, said other banks and insurance companies were also considering moving operations to the northeast.

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