Lloyds to slash 1,230 staff in latest round of job cuts

The lender, which was bailed out by the UK taxpayer at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and remains 9 per cent state-owned, has been slashing its head count and branch network as part of its long-running attempt to cut costs and up its shareholder dividend payments.

The latest announcement of roles to go in its group operations, retail, customer products and marketing, finance and risk divisions, is part of the 9,000 job losses the bank originally projected in October 2014.

The bank said the process involved “difficult decisions” and all affected staff had been told.

It was also pledged that natural turnover would be used to redeploy people wherever possible in order to “retain their expertise and knowledge” within the firm, while voluntary redundancy packages would be preferred and compulsory redundancies issued only as a “last resort”.

However, while employee unions Accord and Unite were consulted prior to the announcement, according to the bank, Unite national officer Rob MacGregor called the move “horrific”.

In July, the bank said it was doubling the number of planned branch closures to 400 in response to to changes in people’s banking habits, with more demand for online services, as well as the sustained period of low interest rates.

They will all close by the end of 2017.

Last week, the government scrapped plans to sell its remaining stake in Lloyds to members of the public, citing market volatility for the decision.

Instead, the stake will now be sold via a “trading plan”, with small tranches of shares sold to institutional investors.