Lloyds to axe 500 Yorkshire posts

Lloyds merged with HBOS last year

Lloyds Banking Group is to cut 530 jobs in West Yorkshire by the end of 2010.

The move is part of plan to shed 5,000 posts nationwide to reduce overlap between divisions after the merger between Lloyds and HBOS last year.

Most of the West Yorkshire cuts will hit Leeds, where 320 jobs are to go in group operations, which includes IT and payment services, and 140 in retail.

Another 70 posts are to go in group operations in Halifax, mainly at the bank's Trinity Road site.

Lloyds said all the redundancies were subject to consultation with the banking unions.

"We will continue to work closely with our colleagues affected by today's announcement to help them through these changes over the coming year," said Mark Fisher, a group director at Lloyds.

This announcement demonstrates the depth of corporate arrogance within this taxpayer-supported bank Rob MacGregor, Unite's national officer

Accord, the union that represents the largest number of former HBOS employees now working in Lloyds, said the cuts were "terrible news" for employees.

"We always recognised that some job losses were inevitable as Lloyds TSB integrated HBOS operations, but the scale of changes announced today will leave many staff in shock," said Ged Nichols, Accord's general secretary.

"It is the biggest job cuts announcement since the formation of the Lloyds Banking Group."

The Unite union reacted angrily to the news.

"This announcement demonstrates the depth of corporate arrogance within this taxpayer-supported bank," said Rob MacGregor, Unite's national officer.

"This country's financial sector should be looking towards the future, rather than continuing to slash jobs without proper consideration of how to rebuild the public's confidence in our tarnished banking sector."

Last week, Lloyds, which is 43%-owned by the taxpayer, said it would receive another £5.7bn in taxpayer support from the Treasury and sell at least 600 branches.

Fellow bailed-out bank Royal Bank of Scotland also announced last week that it would cut almost 4,000 retail banking jobs across the UK.