Lloyds, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender, is to cut 985 jobs following a review of motor financing at its Bank of Scotland unit.
The reduction will affect 910 full-time employees and will be carried out over a two-year period, the London-based bank said today in a statement. Compulsory redundancies will be a “last resort” the lender added.
Lloyds, 43 per cent owned by the British government, bought HBOS for £7.7 billion ($11.2 billion) in a government-brokered takeover earlier this year, giving it the largest branch network in the UK and more than 30 million customers.
The merged bank, which has about 140,000 employees, plans to cut £1.5 billion of costs by 2011 by shedding jobs, selling assets and closing down high street branches.
Bank of Scotland’s review concluded the majority of its motor finance operations “were no longer financially viable or core to the business,” Lloyds said in the statement. Unite, the UK’s biggest trade union, said it will oppose any compulsory job losses at Lloyds.
Bloomberg