Thousands of jobs are set to be lost in Britain's battered financial industries as their business levels, profitability and confidence plunge at the fastest pace in almost two decades, since the depths of the last recession, the CBI says today.

The full scale of the mounting toll of the financial sector from the escalating credit crisis is laid bare by grim findings in the CBI's quarterly survey of its conditions, carried out with PricewaterhouseCoopers and covering leading banks, building societies, insurers, fund managers and securities houses.

The quantity of business being done by financial companies slumped over the past three months, falling for a fourth consecutive quarter and more sharply than at any other time since the survey began in December 1989, it reports. Only 10% of financial businesses reported that their turnover had risen and 61% said that it had dropped.

The Times