About 57 percent of companies surveyed said they were less optimistic than in the first quarter, the CBI and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in an e-mailed statement Monday. About 44 percent of companies posted a decline in profitability, compared with 18 percent previously, the fastest drop since the survey began in 1989, the CBI said.

“The impact of the credit crunch on financial services has deepened over the last three months, and conditions look set to remain difficult for some time yet,” Ian McCafferty, the CBI’s chief economic adviser, said in the statement. “Profitability is being badly hit.”

The survey also predicted 10,000 job losses across the financial services sector over the next three months as effects of the credit crisis continue to take hold.

About 91 percent of the respondents said it will take more than six months for normal conditions to resume, following the freezing up of credit markets and higher inter-bank lending. The issues confronting the financial services industry will weigh on economic growth this year and next, predicted McCafferty.

Companies are trying to reduce costs by cutting back on training and marketing, and about 19 percent forecast job cuts over the next quarter, the CBI said.

The survey was conducted between May 21 and June 4 and included 87 companies, said the CBI, which represents about 240,000 companies in the UK.

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