by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Kent Reliance Banking Services is reviewing its operations in India.

The former building society that transformed last year into OneSavings Bank Plc and the mutual Kent Reliance Provident Society has faced criticism from members about its call centre in Bangalore.

Speaking at the annual meeting in Chatham, chief executive Andy Golding said: “The whole Indian operation is under review because it’s not working the way it should.”

Apart from call centre staff, KRBS uses highly qualified Indian employees for its back office processing, a move widely credited with lowering its expense ratio. It employs staff in both Bangalore and Pune.

KRBS, which had been making losses as a building society, has been strengthened by an £80m cash injection by J C Flowers, the private equity firm, since becoming a bank. An initial £50m has been supplemented by two further investments of £15m.

Senior staff said this reflected the investor’s confidence in KRBS, which has resumed mortgage lending and achieved best buy rankings for some of its savings products.

Mr Golding also confirmed that it had scrapped one-off savings account bonuses and new customer-only offers.

While the banking system was in turmoil, KRBS was building on its 150-year heritage, he said. It had reversed the strategy of closing branches, opening new ones and refurbishing existing ones. The newest will open in Canterbury in the next few weeks.

Malcolm McCaig, chairman, said the organisation had refocused on Kent. The past year had been a significant one for the society in difficult and challenging times. But the capital injection had put the bank in “a position of strength that the building society could not have achieved on its own. The business is on its long road back to profitability.”

KRBS is no longer shirt sponsor of Charlton Athletic but continues to support the club’s community trust.

Meanwhile, the annual accounts to December 2011 show that Mike Lazenby, the former chief executive who left suddenly on February 28, 2011 - soon after the new structure was introduced - was given a final salary package of £549,000.