Obama effect: US firm to pull back jobs from India

Sallie Mae, a US-based company which gives loans to students, Monday announced to move back as many as 2,000 overseas jobs, including those from India, even if it means an additional financial burden on the company because of higher labour expenses.

"It's the right thing to do," said Sallie Mae Chief Executive Albert Lord at a press conference which was attended by Democrat Congressman Paul Kanjorski and Senator Robert Casey in an apparent reference to the large scale job losses in the US in the last one year.

The value of a company's franchise is essentially measured in financial terms, but there are a lot of values in a company that relate to the long-term value of a franchise. It's a wise investment in the company's future, Lord said.

"The current economic environment has caused our communities to struggle with job losses. They need jobs, and we will put 2,000 of them into US facilities as soon as we possibly can," he added.

In the next 18 months, some 2,000 overseas jobs would be moved back to the US. These jobs are primarily in India, Mexico and the Philippines and are basically call centres, information technology and operations support positions.

The move would cost the company $350,000 per annum as the workers in the US would have to be paid a much higher wage than those in countries such as India.

Sallie Mae is the largest US-based student loan provider. It employs more than 8,000 people in the US. For quite some time, it has been struggling during the credit crunch to finance loans to students.

In the fourth quarter the company had reported a net loss of $216 million, in which it made $4.8 billion in student loans. Through its subsidiaries, the company manages $180 billion in education loans and serves 10 million student and parent customers.