Bank Of America Outsources Benefits Administration

Financial services giant Bank of America has outsourced the management of its benefits administration operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada to ExcellerateHRO, a service provider jointly owned by Electronic Data Systems and Towers Perrin.

Under the five-year deal, ExcellerateHRO will provide Bank of America operations in those countries with benefits plan services for a total of about 10,000 employees. The contract extends an existing deal between Bank of America and ExcellerateHRO.

Financial terms weren't disclosed.

EDS and Towers Perrin jointly launched ExcellerateHRO in March 2005. To date, the company has inked more than $550 million in human-resources services contracts.

Human-resources business process outsourcing is the fastest growing segment of the HR services market and will grow at a compound annual rate of 16% in the United States, reaching $18.9 billion in spending by 2010, according to market researcher IDC.