Welcome Financial Services axes jobs

The Walsall branch of Welcome Financial Services is being closed, along with 17 other offices nationwide, as 155 jobs are cut at the loans company.

Up to 30 jobs are being axed by Welcome across the West Midlands, with the closure of its offices in Erdington and Stechford in Birmingham as well as the Lichfield Street branch in Walsall.

But other Welcome Finance branches will remain open including those in Wolverhampton and Dudley.

Welcome specialises in loans to those with a poor credit record, with around 500,000 customers served by its 135 branches.

But its parent company, consumer finance group Cattles, is winding down Welcome's loan book after failing to agree a deal with its creditors last year to continue lending.