The Co-operative Insurance Society, headquartered in Manchester, said 2,500 jobs would be lost in a finance insurance yahoo auto rate
designed to modernise the business.

They will go over the next 18 months to two years, but at the same time 500 new customer service positions are to be created, it said.

The CIS said it was responding to substantial changes in the market to ensure its future profitability.

It has not finalised what positions will be axed but it is expected that staff at its Manchester investment mcgraw hill irwin series in finance insurance and real est
and salesforces across the country will both be affected.

The CIS has already cut 130 jobs so far this year. The Society declined to say what savings it expected to make from the move.

Established in 1867, it currently sells life assurance, home insurance, pensions, unit trusts and other financial products to more than 5m customers.

Consumer trends

In recent years, it has been affected by increased competion in the financial services sector.

It has also been slow to respond to a growing trend for consumers to buy financial products via the internet or telephone rather than directly from a financial advisor.

We need to take action now to ensure a vibrant, successful and sustainable future for our business Mervyn Pedelty, Co-operative Financial Services

Following a comprehensive review of its business, CIS is to focus on enhancing customer service and improving the efficiency of its salesforce. It will also explore selling products from other providers.

Mervyn Pedelty, chief executive of the CIS, said its overall financial position was strong but changes were needed to better serve its customers.

Growing competition

He said: “CIS is not immune from the intensifying economic and competitive pressures occurring within its core markets and we need to take action now to ensure a vibrant, successful and sustainable future for our business.”

Unions representing CIS staff said they were “deeply disappointed” by the scale of job losses proposed.

In a joint statement, the ACTS, Amicus, Naco, Unifi and Usdaw unions said they would seek to ensure that redundancies were kept to a minimum.

“We register our opposition to compulsory redundancies and aim to minimise job losses and maximise the use of measures such as redeployment, retraining company finance insurance premium and, where appropriate, voluntary redundancies,” they said.

CIS is one of the Co-op’s largest operations, employing 9,000 staff. It recorded a long term surplus of 900m in 2003 and 1.97bn in premium income.