Workers at the financial services company were called into a meeting yesterday afternoon and told that the company’s IT services would be outsourced to US-headquartered IT services company Cognizent.

Cognizent has a substantial number of employees based in India.

The majority of the current IT department’s staff, made up of 42 contractors and five permanent members of staff, will lose their jobs by the end of 2019.

Standard Life Aberdeen informed staff that around 25 people will be retained in their current positions, while a further 27 were informed that they could be moved over to work for Cognizent.

Aberdeen Standard Life was created from the merger of Aberdeen Investment and Standard Life two years ago.

Workers told The Scotsman they believed the numbers of jobs lost could run into the hundreds, however, this was denied by Standard Life Aberdeen.

The majority of the firm’s IT department is based in Edinburgh, while a small proportion of those affected work in Aberdeen and London.

One worker said: “I thought it was just the contractors who were affected, but it was the permanent staff too. No one saw it coming. Everyone is just deflated, no-one thought this would happen.”

A spokesman for Standard Life Aberdeen, said: “This is part of the overall merger and integration plan set out in 2017. Those colleagues transferring to our strategic IT partner Cognizant will importantly continue to be based in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London. contractors who have successfully completed specific projects are not being retained.”