Bear Stearns has said it will cut a further 310 jobs in its mortgage lending business in the US, pushing the number of redundancies US and European investment banks have made in their mortgage origination and related divisions to over 6,000.

The move yesterday by the US investment bank is the second round of job cuts it has made to its troubled mortgage lending business since August when it slashed 240 staff at Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage.