Europe’s second largest insurer AXA SA is planning to cut around 450 jobs in the UK. The company has stopped giving financial advice after a change in regulations. AXA says that it will stop giving advice to customers belonging to branches of Co-Operative Banks Plc and National Bank Ltd’s Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks.
New rules have been imposed which govern investment advice this year, so as to remove the possibilities of conflicts between customers and advisors. The retail distribution review has banned the advisors from receiving commissions from the providers of products which force them to charge fees from its customers.
Paul Evans, the chief executive officer of AXA, said in a statement, “AXA U.K. must also now withdraw this service, having not found a model which balanced the regulatory requirement that the service be profitable in its own right, while setting advice fees at an affordable level”. The elimination of jobs will begin after a period of consultation among the employees, unions and banks.
The company also assured that the withdrawal of financial advice will not affect servicing its existing customers. A majority of jobs will be culled from a call centre in Colchester, Essex. The company said that the job cuts will take place in the next 12 months.
