Money Partners poised to cut 78

If Money Partners go ahead and axe what is believed to be 27 per cent of its workforce, it will impact upon both the firms broker-facing and support departments.

The consultation – which is expected to commence on or around 10 December – will last for a period of not less than 30 days but is unlikely to end before 14 January 2008. No redundancies will be made during this period.

Money Partners said it has not reached any final decision whether to proceed with redundancies or the number of redundancies.

This, according to the lender, will be determined by the employee consultation, during which affected employees will be represented by elected employee representatives.

Colin Sanders, Money Partners’ CEO, said: “We are among the last in our peer group of lenders to announce that we are considering job cuts. We have held off in the hope of signs of recovery in the wholesale funding and securitisation markets, but they remain elusive.

"We therefore anticipate writing reduced volumes of business well into 2008, and need to restructure accordingly. That is why we are taking this step.

"It’s one we would all rather avoid, particularly at this time of year, and we will do all we reasonably can to mitigate its effect.”