FINANCIAL services group AMP dealt UK staff a third jobs blow in a year after announcing plans to shed another 900 jobs.

The Australian company said the cuts stemmed from its decision to close life insurer NPI to new business, as well as a wider business reorganisation.

AMP slashed its UK workforce by 1,500 last June before axing its Pearl Assurance direct salesforce in December, with the loss of 1,900 jobs.

The group is in the process of restructuring its loss-making UK arm after seeing turbulent stock market conditions rock the business.

As well as Pearl and NPI, AMP's UK portfolio includes fund manager Henderson, London Life, Towry Law and a 50 per cent stake in Virgin Money. It employs about 5,500 staff in the UK.

The latest round of jobs cuts comes after AMP failed to find a trade buyer for NPI, which has about 100,000 policy holders, and which demutualised in January 2000.

NPI will now be grouped with Pearl and London Life, which have already closed to new business, and form part of a UK arm which AMP has said it wants to demerge by the end of this year.

AMP has not detailed where the latest jobs will go. NPI has headquarters at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and offices in Bristol and Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Union leaders have pledged to "take any action necessary" to reduce the scale of the redundancies.

Andrew Mohl, chief executive, said a review considered a number of options for NPI, including sale, but found that it was best to maintain ownership of the book and run it on a closed basis.

He said: "The decision to restructure has been a very difficult one to make, given the impact it will have on our people. However, it is a necessary step to ensure the new UK-based business has a solid foundation for future success, particularly given the difficult UK environment and our changed UK strategy."

AMP will focus on its core Australian and New Zealand operations following the planned demerger, which will see the UK company spun off and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

AMP made a net loss of £358m last year, against a £275.7m net profit the year before.