Outsourcing exec: tougher to do background checks in India

Checking the backgrounds of employees in India is more difficult than in the United States, an executive of the outsourcing company at the heart of a $350,000 bank fraud case said Friday.

"It is harder to track that," Jeroen Tas, vice chairman of Mphasis, said.

But Tas argued that the , in which former Mphasis call center workers in India were allegedly involved in the theft of U.S. consumers' bank funds, is not a sign of security problems specific to shipping call center work overseas. "We believe this is something that can happen anywhere," he said.

The background-checking process for call-center employees and other so-called business process outsourcing workers in India could improve, Tas said, thanks to plans by the country's National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) to set up a national registry of BPO workers.

There's a particular irony in Mphasis being embroiled in the fraud event. Tas' colleague, Mphasis chief executive Jerry Rao, stressed security awareness when he served as chair of Nasscom last year, Tas said.

Mphasis also prides itself on its security procedures--which are now under scrutiny thanks to the alleged theft. "It's sort of a nightmare," Tas said.