Unite anger as Lloyds axe 625

May 20 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

THE cull of jobs in the finance industry continued with the axing of another 625 posts at part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group.

Although the latest round of cutbacks was mainly in London and Edinburgh the Unite union said the decision by Lloyds Banking Group suggested the company had embarked on a strategy of “death by a thousand cuts.”

National officer Rob MacGregor said the union was furious, adding: “The union will not accept a situation where Lloyds makes weekly announcements of hundreds of job losses. Staff must be told the company’s plans for the future of the organisation and not be left with the uncertainty that they could be the next to lose their jobs.”

Unite said 20,000 finance jobs have been lost in the first four months of the year, including 2,500 at Lloyds.

Lloyds said it was making a number of changes to its wholesale banking division, which provides banking and financial services to corporate customers across the UK.

The group’s commercial banking operations will be brought into one business, while a single acquisition finance business will be created under the existing Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets brand.

The changes will result in the loss of 625 full-time jobs, although Lloyds said that more than 300 new jobs had been identified within wholesale.

The company said it preferred to use natural turnover and redeployment wherever possible, with compulsory redundancies a last resort.

Philip Grant, chief operating officer within Lloyds Banking Group’s Wholesale Division, said: “Our objective is to create one industry-leading wholesale bank for the group. The changes we are making will help us ensure we have the right organisation to meet the needs of the market.”

Lloyds plans to raise £4bn from investors in a move which could result in taxpayers taking a bigger share in the business. The bank wants to raise the funds to convert the £4bn in preference shares owned by the Government into ordinary shares. The taxpayer currently owns 43.4% of the bank, but if all other shareholders snub the issue, it could end up owning 65%.

And it also confirmed this week that Sir Victor Blank would retire as chairman by June next year, amid mounting pressure after losses from its rescue takeover of struggling HBOS last year.