Lord Mayor of the City of London announced yesterday that at least 70,000 jobs will be lost in London’s financial district within barely a year because of the world financial crisis

Ian Luder, who promotes Britain’s financial services sector abroad as part of his non-political role, included by discussing upon the concerns of the bonus culture which had to be addressed but will also stress those who take risk needs to be rewarded.

Asked about the extent of likely cuts in the city at a press briefing, Mr Luder said: ‘The forecast is that 70,000 direct jobs in the sector will have gone between late last year and the early part of next year.

‘Of course, it’s a situation which you’ll see repeated across the globe in financial services sectors.

‘It’s not just the direct jobs, it’s obviously the jobs that indirectly depend on people in employment.’

With in the three months to September, the Britain’s economy shrunk by 0.5 per cent putting it on the verge of recession which Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Bank of England governor Mervyn King have warned is likely.

Grant Thornton ,a tax partner of Mr Luder, Mr Luder also called for an independent research into whether the government’s increase of the top level of tax to 45 pence in the pound from 2011. Mr. Luder plans to visit India, the US, Russia, Canada and Malaysia during his year in the job, which he started a few weeks ago.