THE Co-operative Group yesterday confirmed plans to cut about 1,000 jobs from its financial services businesses.
The losses at the Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) division - which includes online bank Smile, the Co-operative Bank and Co-operative Insurance - amount to about ten per cent of the group's staff.
The firm said the job losses were "regrettably unavoidable" and were part of plans to save £100m in operational costs by next June.
The job losses will mainly be in the North-West, as CFS has bases in Manchester, Stockport, Skelmersdale and Salford.
The firm cut more than 2,000 jobs in 2004.
Last year, pre-tax profits fell by more than 13 per cent, to £146.2m, because of increased competition, bad debts, personal insolvencies and investment costs.
The firm said customer-facing roles would not be affected.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article