Melbourne: Australia's leading bank ANZ is shifting 70 jobs to India as a part of its cost-cutting measures, according to a media report.

"ANZ Bank will cut 70 jobs from its Australian operations and replace the staff with workers in India, as banks continue to shrink their workforces in a push to reduce costs," local daily 'The Age' said in a report today.

The bank has informed the staff that it will be making the cuts in its wealth division, and most of the cuts will affect back-office positions in Sydney, the report said.

"These changes reflect the need to simplify our business given the more subdued economic environment and to ensure our customers are supported with specialist back-office capabilities," an ANZ spokesman was quoted as saying by the report.

This comes in the wake of ANZ last year announcing cuts of about 1,000 jobs in back-office and middle management roles in response to weaker economic conditions.

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Criticizing the move, industry body Finance Sector Union (FSU) said in all, the plan will see 131 positions sent overseas but ANZ is hoping to redeploy about 60 of the affected staff, so that the net loss in headcount is about 70.

FSU National Secretary Leon Carter said there had now been 500 positions "off shored" in the sector during the first two months of 2013.

"We are not even two months into the year, and already 500 finance jobs have been off shored. Is it any wonder that finance workers are feeling increasingly concerned about their future?" he said.

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