CALL centre staff in Glasgow fear they could face job cuts after an insurance giant said it is to make £100million of savings every year.

Direct Line wants to make huge cost cuts despite admitting its six-monthly operating profit has risen by more than £14m and it is selling 700,000 more policies.

The company is being sold by the Royal Bank of Scotland and today admitted a programme of efficiences will include job losses. The Kent-based business has around 15,000 staff across the UK.

It's Scottish opera-tions are in Glasgow city centre where it has 970 staff based in Cadogan Street.

City staff are known to be among the most proficient of Direct Line's workforce. They also deal with insurance customers with rivals such as Churchill and Tesco supermarket.

However, Direct Line earlier closed two Glasgow offices with the loss of 400 jobs and its city operations could be targeted again.

Officials refuse to say at which bases across the UK the axe will fall, but a spokeswoman admitted: "Invariably, efficiency means fewer people."

Euro regulations have ruled that the Royal Bank of Scotland must sell off its majority stake in Direct Line by the end of next year before disposing of the rest of its shares by the end of 2014.

RBS chiefs plan a public sale of its shares next month and that's likely to value Direct Line at £3billion – four years after the bank tried to sell the business for twice that amount.

Direct Line chief executive Paul Geddes said the company had made good progress towards an independent future.

His comments came after half yearly operating profits rose from £209.5m to £224.2m and the number of policies went up 4% from 19.4m to 20.1m.

gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes.co.uk