More job losses at Lloyds

21st May 2009 13:37

Staff at Lloyds Banking Group were dealt another blow today as the part-nationalised lender announced a further 211 full-time jobs will go by January 2010.Lloyds, 43% owned by the taxpayer, continues to streamline the business following last year's takeover of rival HBOS.The latest cuts come about as the bank merges the Lloyds and HBOS telephone and digital banking services.Earlier this week, is said 625 British jobs would be lost due to the combination of the corporate and small-business lending units, part of the wholesale banking business."Our objective is to create one industry-leading wholesale bank for the group," said the firm on Tuesday. "We will seek to make these changes by using natural turnover and redeployment wherever possible." Rob MacGregor, national officer of the Unite union, said: "Another day and another group of finance workers have been devastated by job losses at the Lloyds Banking Group.""Unite is angry that employees continue to live with ambiguity about their futures. The bank must, as a matter of urgency, tell staff of its long-term plans for the workforce."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 cuts come a month after it emerged 985 jobs will be axed over the next two years at the car finance business, which Lloyds thinks is not financially viable. 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.