Lloyds Takes Axe To 640 Jobs And 23 Branches

State-backed Lloyds Banking Group (Other OTC: LLOBF - news) is axing 640 jobs and shutting 23 branches in the latest tranche of a three-year programme of cuts.

Staff affected were being informed on Wednesday. Trade union Unite said it would hit IT and group staff as well as wealth management operations.

Lloyds, still 9% owner by the taxpayer after its £20bn rescue during the financial crisis, is more than two-thirds of the way through a strategy announced in October 2014 to cut 9,000 jobs.

It is also closing 200 branches as part of the three-year plan as customers switch to online banking and some job functions become automated. The latest closures will bring the running total to 175.

Lloyds said the net job losses resulting from the latest announcement totalled 525, with 115 jobs being created.

The new branch closures will take place in October, though the group – which includes Halifax Bank of Scotland as well as Lloyds Bank – said it would still have the largest branch network in the UK.

A spokesman said: "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."

He said the company would look to achieve the cuts through voluntary redundancies and that compulsory redundancies would be a last resort.

The announcement comes amid uncertainty about the Government's plans to dispose of its remaining stake in the bank in the wake of market volatility sparked by the EU referendum vote - a result causing particular upheaval for banks and their share prices.

Rob MacGregor, national officer for trade union Unite, said: "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. These latest job losses are to impact staff across the country."

Lloyds branches will close in Blackfen (Sidcup), Bourne End (Bucks), Chapel Hill (Truro), Colindale (London), Colyton (Devon), Mill Hill (London), Netherton (Dudley), Newbridge (Gwent), Nottingham University, Pool (Cornwall), Radford (Coventry), Ryton (Tyne and Wear), Sandy (Beds), Shifnal (Shropshire), South Quay (London), Southwick (Brighton), Southwick (Sunderland), Stanford-le-Hope (Essex), Tonyrefail (Glamorgan) and Watchet (Somerset).

Halifax branches will close in Leicester's Horsefair, at Bloomsbury in London and at Merry Hill in Wolverhampton.