A MAJOR player in the local employment market has fallen victim to the credit crunch.

Inter Group Insurance Services (IGIS) has announced its proposal to close its office in Alton in August 2009 due to changes in the travel insurance market.

Based just outside Alton on the B3006 Selborne road, IGIS is one of the biggest employers in the town, currently employing 104 full-time staff, and around 16 part-timers (working less than 20 hours).

Part of the RBS Group, Inter Group Insurance Services is a third party administrator, mainly for the UK travel insurance market. Inter Group has operated in Alton since 1999. It was acquired by Churchill Insurance in 2001, becoming part of RBS Insurance division in 2003 as part of an RBS takeover.

According to the head of Inter Group, Bob Andrews, the decision to close the Alton site has been forced by "a fundamental shift in the third party travel insurance market in the last few years.

"Major clients of Inter Group have recently taken their travel insurance business back in-house and sadly we have no alternative but to make this announcement today (Tuesday).

"We have explored every possible avenue before proposing this unfortunate action."

According to a statement from IGIS, discussions will be entered into with employees to minimise the need for redundancies. All employees impacted will be invited to apply for alternative roles within the RBS Group.

It has been confirmed that the IGIS office at Farnham remains unaffected.