Barclaycard is to close its Manchester call centre and move some of the work to India with the loss of more than 600 jobs, it has been announced.

The credit card firm said the centre will close in July and work moved to Mumbai and Delhi in India and to Teesside.

The restructuring will affect 630 workers, who will be paid until October to help them find other jobs.

Amicus condemned the closure, which the union said was "totally inappropriate" for such a profitable firm.

Barclaycard's profits fell 40 per cent to £382m last year, although the Barclays group made more than £7bn.

Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclaycard, said: "Decisions like these are never easy and we will be doing everything we can to support those affected."

Staff were given the news this morning and were offered support to find other work.

Amicus official Steve Pantak said: "At a time of increasing pressure on all staff in Barclaycard, we believe it to be totally inappropriate for this large and highly profitable employer to be announcing closures and job losses.

"We have made our opposition to these moves very clear to the bank. We are, however, continuing to meet with the bank and do have robust agreements in place which will help to find alternative jobs for those affected elsewhere in Barclays.

"We believe that with such a large presence in the North West, Barclays should be able to accommodate all those staff who are displaced but wish to remain with them. We will be pushing the bank hard to achieve this outcome."