Barclays Bank has confirmed that it will offshore many sections of its IT operations over the next three years.

As many as 1,800 UK jobs could be shipped overseas. Some will be offered to UK employees, but the company is giving no idea of terms and conditions.

"Some roles will move offshore and colleagues will have the opportunity to apply for these roles and relocate," Barclays said in a statement.

"As far as possible, we will manage the reduction in headcount by reducing the number of contractors and temps we employ.

"Where permanent staff are affected, working with Unite, we have put in place significant support to help them find another role, either in Barclays, or externally."

Early indications are that the bank will be using the long lead time to reduce the need for redundancies and to make job cuts through natural wastage. Unite says it expects fewer than 50 jobs to go via redundancy.

The move mirrors that taken by Lloyds TSB last year and is part of the steady growth of outsourcing for cost savings purposes, despite evidence that such moves are not popular with customers.