The bank, more than 40% owned by the taxpayer, is now on course to cut 20,000 posts as part of its ongoing three-year plan to integrate HBOS with its existing Lloyds operations.
Up to 1,600 permanent roles in the UK will be lost, and a further 1,150 temporary contracts will be cut. The bank is also cutting another 1,750 offshore contractor roles.
A Lloyds banking group spokesperson said: “The redundancies are a result of Lloyds undergoing integration with HBOS. As soon as the plans were revealed we informed our colleagues first so that they were aware of the situation in advance.”
She added: “The integration had been planned over a two-to-three year period and will go on until 2011.”
Accord, the union representing the largest number of former HBOS employees now working for the group, described the announcement as “devastating”.
Deputy General Secretary Clive Webster said: “Over past few weeks we heard lots of comments from senior bankers in the UK that they recognize that they have to change how they behave and operate and recognize that they have wider responsibilities than just what is legal and profitable.”
The cuts are set to be completed by the end of next year following the completion of an integration period between Lloyds and HBOS. Lloyds says it consulted its union partners, Accord, LTU and Unite prior to the announcement.
Lloyds Banking Group director of group operations Mark Fisher said: “Today marks another major step in bringing our businesses together. The changes we are putting in place will give us a world-class IT operation that will benefit our customers and all our other stakeholders.
“We will work closely with the colleagues affected by today’s announcement to help them through these changes. We have mitigated the impact on permanent staff with a significant release of temporary and contract staff.”
