S&P Moves More Work to India

International credit ratings firm Standard and Poor's has chosen India to be the location of an offshore site as it will transfer more of its analytical jobs to the country.

As business strengthens, S&P will be relocating more of its jobs to Mumbai, said Deven Sharma, president of S&P, in an interview with the Economic Times of India. He added that the company has already made its presence in the Asean region outside Mumbai where it conducts some ratings work.

He also said that some of the company's cross-border ratings pool has already been shifted from Singapore to the Indian city.

Sharma also said that S&P has established a very good outsourcing business when it comes to equity research and other analytical and knowledge processing outsourcing business after its acquisition of a controlling stake in Crisil in 2005. Crisil, which is also India's leading ratings firm, had its business increased five times since it was bought by S&P.

However, even though S&P controls the majority of Crisil, it has its independent ratings business in India. IT is run by S&P and caters to the international market. Crisil also has an offshoring team which backs the remaining global analytical works for S&P.

Sharma also acknowledged former Crisil Chairman and regional head of S&P R Ravimohan as someone who has greatly contributed to Crisil. He also mentioned that he was "relieved and happy" by the presence of Crisil's CEO Roopa Kudva.

S&P also plans to stick with the Crisil brand name in India since it had already established a name that is recognized well.