Jobs axed at building society

Senior executives at West Bromwich Building Society today paid the price for the credit crunch – as other staff were being warned of the need to drum up new business.

The Black Country’s biggest building society confirmed today it is making a number of senior managers redundant, including its head of mortgages.

The three have been issued with redundancy notices this week following a management restructuring.

Other staff at the building society are being summoned to a meeting at which they will be informed of the challenges facing the organisation as business dwindles.

Society chief executive Stephen Karle said: “Three senior managers have left the business as part of a normal restructuring.

“This is all part of making sure that we keep the business efficient. We have also lost two senior managers from our commercial lending side, where the market is absolutely static.

“In the current climate, we have to look for cost savings to ensure that we keep the business as tight as we can in the interests of our members.”

He made it clear that today’s job losses were not a forerunner to major redundancies elsewhere but he said the meeting of staff planned for later this week would be to “focus efforts” on building the mortgage business in the society’s West Midlands heartland.

The news came as figures showed the number of first-time buyers getting onto the property ladder had sunk to a record low, while the Nationwide building society warned that house prices could lose 25 per cent of their value from their peak.

Exclusive by Business Editor Jim Walsh

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