Gerald Grimes, group CEO designate of Together, said: "While it remains too early to reliably estimate the full impact of COVID-19, we expect the remainder of 2020 and possibly 2021 to be challenging for most businesses."
Together is set to shed 200 jobs as it adapts following the COVID-19 pandemic - the specialist lender confirmed in an update to the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
On June 16 Together canceled commercial and pre-offer regulated pipeline deals due to uncertainty in capital markets. However, the lender confirmed that it was still cautiously increasing lending volumes.
The update to the LSE read: "The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact on economies across the globe and has created significant uncertainty around the nature and extent of any downturn.
"Many economists are predicting a deep and sustained global recession and, combined with the planned exit from the government's furlough and mortgage payment deferral schemes at the end of October 2020, this is expected to have an impact on property activity, unemployment and economic growth within the UK.
"Against this backdrop, while we are cautiously increasing lending volumes it is unlikely we will resume our pre-Covid-19 activity levels for some time.
"At the same time we are accelerating some of our modernisation and transformation programmes, including further use of digitalisation and enhanced automation to provide additional processing efficiencies and improve the journey for our customers.
"In light of these developments and to ensure that our cost base remains appropriate, we have launched an employee consultation process on proposals to reduce colleague numbers by around 200 reflecting the anticipated future shape of our business."
Gerald Grimes, group CEO designate of Together, said: "While it remains too early to reliably estimate the full impact of COVID-19, we expect the remainder of 2020 and possibly 2021 to be challenging for most businesses.
"Together entered the pandemic in a strong position and, as we move out of lockdown, we are taking the necessary steps to shape our business for the future: putting plans in place to mitigate any downside risks; ensuring our cost base is appropriate; and accelerating our transformation programmes to make us more efficient and further improve the experience for our customers.
"With the actions we are taking, we believe Together will emerge from the crisis well placed to support our customers and to play our part in supporting the UK's economic recovery."
