A BANK that sacked nearly 1,000 North-East call centre workers last year has seen a dramatic fall in profits.

Lloyds TSB announced pre-tax profits of £3.5bn for last year, a fall of nearly 20 per cent on the previous year.

The decline is in stark contrast to the rest of the sector. Last month, HSBC announced annual profits of £9.18bn - a record for a UK-based bank.

A few days later, Royal Bank of Scotland announced profits had risen 15 per cent to a record £8.1bn.

Lloyds said the decline reflected the impact of businesses sold in 2003, which contributed nearly £1.2bn to the bottom line.

The group announced a sell-off last year to concentrate on the domestic market.

Last November, the group transferred its Newcastle contact centre operations to Mumbai, in India, with the loss of 960 jobs.

It also warned up to another 1,000 UK jobs would go to India by the end of next year, but promised the axe would not fall on its Sunderland call centre, which employs 600 people.

The Lloyds TSB Group Union (LTGU), which represents some of the workforce, suggested the loss was due to the export of jobs, claiming this has garnered bad publicity and led to a drop in customer service.

Steve Tatlow, assistant general secretary, said: "They have got rid of 960 jobs merely because they can replace those with staff at a tenth of the salary.

"The money they have saved will be outweighed by the bad faith they will develop with their customers."

However, the bank's UK division performed better than last year. Assets at the division rose from £90.5bn to £101.6bn, and pre-tax profits were up 12 per cent at £1.651bn.

Across the group, pre-tax profits from continuing operations rose ten per cent to £3.4bn, as all its divisions improved their performance.

Pre-tax profits in the group's insurance and investment operations increased by 18 per cent to £785m, boosted by a 21 per cent rise in new business at Scottish Widows.

In wholesale and international banking, pre-tax profits jumped by 23 per cent to £1.3bn.

LTGU planned to demonstrate in Newcastle city centre yesterday, but its London campaign team was trapped by snow at Stanstead Airport.