Industry analysts have speculated that the move could be linked to the lender’s recent acquisition by Spanish banking giant Santander or that the group was simply anticipating a slower property market in 2005.
Abbey spokesperson Helen Tochel said: “At the beginning of November we made some small-scale changes to the way our valuations services team is structured.
“This formed part of regular and planned reviews of our resources. As a result of this review, four people are leaving the company before the end of the year."
Rob Clifford, managing director of Mortgageforce, explained that most large lenders were increasingly resorting to outsourcing functions like mortgage processing and valuations.
“The fact that this has happened in the light of Abbey’s acquisition by Sandanter perhaps reflects that a review of the groups non-core functions is under way,” he said.
“Though if this is just a simple cost cutting exercise then Abbey could find their service levels faltering if business volumes start to increase.”
Tony Jones, managing director of Pink Home Loans, said the news of the redundancies was not surprising and probably reflected Abbey’s current perception of the market, along with its predictions for the immediate future.
“As long as they are still able to maintain service levels I don’t think this will overly affect most brokers in the market,” he said.
