Lloyds Banking Group is to cut 780 branch jobs and insurance giant Direct Line 800 in a double blow to the UK financial services sector.
It comes just weeks after Bank of Scotland owner Lloyds announced plans to shut a further 56 branches across the UK. The full-time equivalent redundancies will take place between June and October this year.
The cuts at Direct Line, which owns the Churchill and Green Flag brands, will affect almost 7% of the 11,000 workforce between 2021 and 2022 and will include the closure of one of its sites. It is thought to employ around 1000 people at its major office in Cadogan Street, Glasgow.
Unite said the Lloyds latest jobs cull was “more evidence of the bank’s ‘profits over people’ culture”.
Scott Doyle, Unite’s Lloyds Banking Group committee chairman, said: “The Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Halifax branches hit by the extensive staff cuts today will have sent shockwaves through the communities which are at present served by highly experienced bank staff.”
He added: “Unite has pressed Lloyds to reconsider these job cuts and ensure that the bank remains rooted in the communities on which they depend for their long-term sustainability.There is no doubt that customers need experienced and highly committed banking staff in their communities and not just at the end of the phone or via an app.”
Lloyds blamed the job losses on the switch of customers to online banking. A spokesman for the bank said: “As customers are using our branches less often, we are reducing the number of roles across our branch network. This means we can shape our service according to customer behaviour and local demand. Change does mean difficult decisions and we are focused on supporting our colleagues at this time.”
Last year, Direct Line chief executive Penny James told investors that the business would need to cut costs by around £50 million.
A Direct Line Group spokeswoman said: “Like many companies we are having to prepare for changes in the way we operate, reflecting changing customer behaviour where people are increasingly opting to interact with us digitally. We are therefore proposing a number of changes across the business which sadly mean the loss of jobs for some of our people.
“These decisions are always really difficult; we take the wellbeing of our people very seriously and have given people as much time as possible to prepare.”
