BANKING giant Barclays looks set to axe almost 80 jobs in the North East as part of move away from offering financial planning advice through its retail branches.

The moves are likely to lead to around 1,000 job losses nationally, it was announced today.

The bank said there had been a decline in the commercial viability of the services in recent years which it expected will continue.

Customers were increasingly buying and managing their investments online, said Barclays, adding it was proposing to offer retail investment services solely online.