Lloyds bank axes 15000 jobs

LONDON — Britain's bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group axed 15,000 jobs Thursday as it bids to halve its international division, save £1.5 billion a year and return to full health after the global financial crisis.LBG announced that it would cut 14 percent of its staff following a strategic review, saving the equivalent of 1.7 billion euros or $2.4 billion by 2014 as new chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio seeks to transform the loss-making lender.The company's share price closed up almost ten percent as investors applauded the review, which is aimed at returning the group to profitability to enable the British government to sell its 41-percent stake.In a bad day for staff at British banks, HSBC announced it was cutting 700 jobs.The announcement by LBG means it has now slashed more than 40,000 posts since 2009 as it looks to nurse its way back to health after a part-nationalisation at the height of the global financial crisis,"We have three compelling reasons for change: we must return to profitability as quickly as possible, we must support the UK economy and we must pay taxpayers' money back," Portuguese national Horta-Osorio, 47, told reporters.Under the new strategy, LBG will also make major investments in its Lloyds TSB, Halifax and Bank of Scotland divisions, as well as in its Scottish Widows insurance business.The lender, which was sunk by the ill-fated 2008 takeover of rival bank HBOS, will seek to cut its international activities to 15 nations by 2014, compared with the current level of 30.An LBG spokeswoman declined to comment on which countries the group would exit but it is known that the majority of job losses would be in middle management and back-office roles, such as IT and support functions.LBG stressed it would seek to shed staff through natural departures and redeployment rather than redundancy."It's important to note that these (cuts) are roles, not people. We have a strong record of minimising redundancies," said Horta-Osorio.He added: "We have to do this. This bank has lost money, it's

Add comment

Nick
Content

Submit