STAFF at York credit card insurer CPP have rallied in support of the firm's management with a petition against proposals by a group of shareholders to replace four board directors.

The Holgate-based company announced last month it had received notice of a general meeting requisition, proposing that CPP chief executive Stephen Callaghan, chairman Roger Canham and non-executive directors Shaun Astley-Stone and Abhai Rajguru are removed from the board.

The motion is being put forward by Schroder Investment Management, acting as discretionary manager on behalf of clients who are holders of more than five per cent of the paid up capital of the company,

Following the announced staff have come forward to stand by the current board, praising it for the turnaround of the company and achieving profitability as the firm recovers from a £10.5 million fine for miss-selling, which has left it unable to sell in the UK while paying out £65.8 million in compensation to customers.

A petition to keep the current board in place has been launched, with more than 200 signatories in York so far as employees take their plight to overseas staff, already resulting in 93 signatures from the firm's office in Turkey.

Grant Smalley, a senior product executive, who has been with CPP for 14 years, is leading the petition and is keen for staff to be heard as they act independently to back chief executive Stephen Callaghan and his senior colleagues.

Mr Smalley said: "This isn't about four board members leaving the business; it's ripping the heart out of CPP completely.

"In the last year or two, particularly as Steve has come on board, there is an expectation that we are going to come out of the other side and grow. He has instilled a lot of good values in our people. We are completely on board with Steve and the board members.

"I fear that if they go a lot of the senior leadership team are going to follow and go too, and then people like me will go as well. It would be the final straw for a lot of people.

"We are not the company we were four years ago. Yes we did a lot wrong, but it wasn't the employees, it was the management, and no one is here anymore that was part of that old CPP.

"We are the new CPP. We want to forget about the past, we have paid our dues, paid our fine, and we want to move forward."

Schroders is proposing that the four board members are replaced by Sir Richard Douglas Lapthorne, Nicholas Ian Cooper and Mark William Hamlin. CPP believes that Schroders and Sir Richard Lapthorne are working together with Hamish Ogston, founder and chairman of CPP until 2005.

Mr Ogston remains the largest individual shareholder, but currently has no management or operational control over the business.

In an announcement to the stock market last month CPP said it was surprised by the requisition "given that the company’s overall performance has been strong, and significantly ahead of of previous market expectations" and said if the proposed resolutions are passed, all the company’s non-executive directors will have been proposed by Schroders, "and will lack experience of the business", and any prior board-level experience of regulated financial services businesses.

Mr Smalley said he has contacted Schroders asking them to reconsider the motion, but is yet to get a response.

He said: "We don't even know why this is being proposed. I feel it is completely and utterly unjustified.We have a great bunch of employees who are passionate and loyal. We want to be left alone to get on with it and finish the journey we have started. We want to grow the company."

Last month also saw CPP, which employs around 550 people in York, report profits of £20.8 million, having posted losses of almost £7 million the year before.

Reporting the financial results for the year ending December 31, 2015, CPP bosses said a return to the black reflected a new beginning for the firm as it continues its turnaround.

CPP have until April 11 to call a General Meeting, after which the meeting must be held by May 9.