Britain’s state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) said yesterday it would axe 15,000 jobs to streamline the group, halve its international base and deliver £1.5 billion (US$2.4 billion) of annual savings by 2014.
The major overhaul, carried out under the leadership of new chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio, will seek to “streamline our international presence, from 30 countries to less than half that number by 2014,” LBG said in a statement.
Lloyds, which is 41-percent state-owned after a huge bailout at the height of the global financial crisis, has now slashed more than 40,000 jobs since 2009 as it looks to guide its way back to health.
Photo: Reuters
The majority of the job losses will be in middle management and back-office roles, such as IT and support functions, rather than the group’s retail branch network. LBG suffered spectacular losses in 2008 and 2009, as bad debts rocketed in the wake of its 2008 takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), which was plagued by toxic or high-risk property investments.
Lloyds will also seek to shed staff through natural attrition and redeployment rather than redundancy. The group employed 106,000 workers before the latest announcement.
“Our aim is to become the best bank for customers,” said Horta-Ossrio, the former head of Santander UK who was parachuted into Lloyds in March to help turn around its fortunes.
“We will unlock the potential in this franchise over time by creating a simpler, more agile and responsive organization, and by making substantial investments in better-value products and services for our customers, to deliver strong, stable and sustainable returns for our shareholders,” he added.
Yesterday’s news of steep job cuts, announced amid a 24-hour walkout by public sector workers in Britain, sparked intense anger from trade union Unite.
“The long-awaited results of the Lloyds strategic review will cause deep distress and anxiety across the company as staff face the reality of this arbitrary slashing of jobs,” Unite national officer David Fleming said.
“The conclusion of this review to make 15,000 staff cuts is yet another extreme example of the financial services industry cutting vital staff in a desperate attempt to create a mirage of acceptability following the financial crisis,” he added.
Meanwhile, US investment banking giant Goldman Sachs will lay off about 230 employees for “economic” reasons, according to a notice submitted to the New York State Department of Labor.
The employees, who represent less than 1 percent of the company’s 34,500 worldwide staff, will be dismissed between Sept. 26, 2011, and March 31 next year, according to a copy of the notice posted on the department’s Web site.
New York state requires companies employing more than 50 salaried workers to notify authorities 90 days in advance of major layoffs.
Goldman referred to the action as a “plant layoff” in the notice.
The premier Wall Street bank, which became synonymous with the 2008 financial crisis and the target of outrage over lavish executive pay, has since pledged a new era of transparency and commitment to customers’ interests.
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