In an effort to cut down losses, banking giant Abbey has decided to shed 400 jobs in England and move some telephone enquiry jobs to India.

The bank, however, said on Wednesday that it is not closing Scottish Provident, based in Edinburgh where 700 jobs were cut.

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It says those jobs and 200 others will be moved to Glasgow by the end of this year, with staff having the option of voluntary redundancy.

But union Amicus called it "redundancy by the back door".

Abbey currently has more than 40 centres in the UK, excluding branches, and said it wanted to move to fewer, larger centres, based in five key locations.

The company said it was investing 25 million pounds in IT, training and the sites in Belfast, Bradford, Glasgow, Milton Keynes and Sheffield.

But David Fleming, finance officer for Amicus, told BBC news Online on Wednesday that asking 900 people and their families to uproot from Edinburgh to Glasgow, or travel 80 km to work every day is nothing more than redundancy by the back door.

The company said, "Staff will be offered enhanced packages to encourage them to relocate or commute to Glasgow".