Up to 15,000 well-paid City jobs could move to India by 2010 as companies show more willingness to outsource higher skilled tasks, according to financial services consultancy Troika.

The company has conducted research which estimates that financial services jobs could join the flood of call centre and back office administration posts that have already moved abroad.

Troika believes that 100,000 jobs could be lost to low-cost countries by the end of the decade.

The past few years have seen Indian companies offering more profitable, highly skilled, analytical work, including actuarial services and financial modelling.

Indian companies are already providing research services to London-based stockbrokers and management consultancies.

Troika’s managing director Andrew Stewart thinks financial services companies fully began to embrace the concept of outsourcing last year.

With the new trend towards outsourcing, he sees a growing shift to offshore more expensive roles in marketing, finance, research, HR, actuarial and underwriting.

“So far, the majority of offshoring has been back office functions and call centres, which are relatively simple processes and tasks,” said Stewart. “Now more complex and higher-paid jobs are starting to be offshored as well.”

International Financial Services London, a financial services industry body, said the market for financial services work carried out offshore would be worth some £77bn in 2005, a £38bn saving on the cost of those services in the UK.