Lloyds is cutting 600 jobs and closing 21 branches
The cuts were first reported by the Financial Times and a spokesperson for Lloyds confirmed the cuts over the phone to Business Insider.
The spokesperson said the cuts were part of 9,000 job cuts and 200 branch closures first announced in October 2014 and said the current round of cuts would only result in a net loss of 430 staff at the bank, with 195 new jobs being created as part of the restructure.
Lloyds, which is just over 20% owned by the taxpayer, says the job cuts will be in operations, risk, group finance, and group strategy. Those affected have been told today.
Banks around the world have been cutting staff in recent months amid pressure on returns due to low-interest rates, depressed market activity, and high regulation costs.
Here's Lloyds statement on the cuts:
Lloyds Banking Group is today announcing c430 [net] role reductions as part of the total role reductions of 9,000 already announced in October 2014 as part of the Group's three-year strategy. The reductions are within Group Operations, Risk, Group Finance and Group Strategy. The net total is inclusive of c195 new roles that will be created across these business areas.
As part of our Group Strategic Review, we also announced 200 branch closures over the three year period. Today we can confirm that we will be closing 21 branches during July 2016 as part of this strategy. 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. Accord and Unite were consulted prior to this announcement and will continue to be consulted.
The Group's policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the Group. 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.