Lloyds Bank to cut 1,230 jobs

The move is part of a plan to pare about 12,000 roles by 2017

Antonio Horta-Osorio, Lloyds chief executive, deepened job cuts in July (Getty)

Lloyds Banking Group will axe another 1,230 jobs as part of a cost-cutting program that started in 2014.

Lloyds announced in July it would be cutting 3,000 jobs and closing 200 branches amid the uncertain economic environment caused by Britain’s vote to leave the EU. The total number of jobs cut since the announcement of an efficiency drive in 2014 will stand at 12,000 by the end of next year.

Trade union Unite described the job losses, expected to hit the lender’s retail banking as well as other divisions, as “horrific”.

Rob MacGregor, national officer of Unite, said: “Job losses within this taxpayer-backed institution are wholly unacceptable.”

“The constant flow of job cuts across Lloyds Banking Group must now be halted and staff be allowed to get on with delivering the high quality and impressive service they are so good at providing. The Lloyds management pursuit of this cuts agenda is counter-productive in their aim of a successful business.”

Lloyds said in a statement: “This process involves taking difficult decisions, and we are committed to working through these changes in a careful and sensitive way.”

“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.”

The bank has already cut about 4,000 positions from its 75,000-strong workforce in 2016 and has closed around 100 branches so far this year.

Lloyds has slumped 27 per cent this year in London trading, making it the second-worst performance among major British lenders.

The Government last week scrapped plans to sell its 9 per cent stake in Lloyds.

British taxpayers still hold about £3.6bn shares in Lloyds, after bailing the bank out during the financial crisis.

Shares in Lloyds will not be sold as a “retail offer” to the public but instead gradually sold into the institutional investment market to ensure a full return of the bank to the private sector.

Additional reporting by Reuters