Lloyds and ABN axe more staff

19th May 2009 14:37

Lloyds Banking Group is cutting another 625 British jobs on the same day that Dutch bank ABN Amro announced plans to get rid of as many as 6,500 staff.The losses are blamed on the merger of the UK bank's corporate and small-business lending units, part of the wholesale banking business, following the takeover of rival HBOS last year."Our objective is to create one industry-leading wholesale bank for the group," said the firm. "We will seek to make these changes by using natural turnover and redeployment wherever possible."But Lloyds, now 43%-owned by the taxpayer, said those facing redundancy will be considered for 300 new jobs being created within the wholesale banking department.Yesterday, Sir Victor Blank announced he will step down as chairman of Lloyds by June next year following fierce criticism of his ill-fated purchase of HBOS. Today's job cuts come less than a month after the group said 985 jobs would go at its car finance business over the next two years after deciding the business is not financially viable. Union, Unite, said 20,000 finance jobs have disappeared in the first four months of the year, including 2,500 at Lloyds, which employs about 140,000 staff worldwide.Meanwhile, ABN Amro could axe up to 10% of its workforce as it merges the business with Fortis Bank Netherland.It's hoped net job losses of between 5,500 and 6,500 will save the combined group between €1bn and €1.3bn.