Banking giant Lloyds to axe 640 staff and shut down 23 of its branches
This follows mass job losses across the sector
BANKING giant Lloyds is to axe 640 jobs and close 23 branches - the latest in a series of brutal culls across the industry.
The bailed-out lender, still 9 per cent owned by the taxpayer, said the cuts would come across the country - also affecting staff in HQ.
Union bosses last night said the latest of “endless” cutbacks would bring only “disappointment”.
It comes amid jobs losses in the wider banking sector - with up to 600 UK bank branches shut in the year to April.
Royal Bank of Scotland closed the most branches - 166 - followed by HSBC with 146.
Rob MacGregor, Unite’s national officer, said of the Lloyds cuts announced yesterday: “The continuation of the bank’s major job loss programme will bring disappointment as staff feel they have already faced two years of endless workforce cuts.
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“These latest job losses are to impact staff across the country.
“The union is calling on the bank to avoid compulsory redundancies with options for redeployment, job-swapping or voluntary redundancy wherever possible.”
It is understood the cuts will affect IT staff in offices in London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Halifax, and Manchester, among other places.
Staff at its wealth division in the capital as well as Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Haywards Heath, Birmingham and other locations will also face the chop.
Despite the cuts, the bank said it would create 115 new roles.
It added in a statement: “Today we can confirm that we will be closing 23 branches during October 2016...
“Branches will continue to play an important role in our multi-channel approach to meeting customer needs and we expect to continue to have the biggest branch network in the UK.
“Lloyds Banking Group is committed to working through these changes with employees in a careful and sensitive way.
“All affected employees have been briefed by their line manager today.
“The Group’s policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge.
“Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company, it will look to achieve this by offering voluntary redundancy.
“Compulsory redundancies will always be a last resort.”
In April, Lloyds chief Antonio Horta-Osorio revealed pre-tax profits for the previous three months had nearly halved to £654million.