1,500 jobs go as Cheltenham & Gloucester closes all branches

Lloyds Banking Group is announcing further job losses today with the closure of all its 160 UK Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) branches with the loss of 1,500 jobs.

Since April, Lloyds has axed almost 3,000 jobs which resulted in the Unite union accusing the banking giant of a embarking on a strategy of “death by a thousand cuts”.

According to the union, 20,000 jobs have been axed in the finance industry in the first four months of 2009, with Lloyds making up over 10% of the losses.

However, at the time of its merger with HBOS, analysts said it was inevitable that the integration of the two banking giants was bound to create thousands of jobs losses because of the level of overlap between the two banks.

Meanwhile, according to the BBC, the C&G brand will be kept for mortgages and savings. A spokesperson for Lloyds said that C&G was an important brand to the group and “would continue to be so”.

In related news, yesterday it was reported that 87% of new shares offered by Lloyds Banking Group have been bought by the bank’s shareholders.

Lloyds announced the cash call in order to replace the £4 billion of preference shares held by the Government in the bank for equity.

By raising billions of pounds via the cash call, Lloyds will become the first bank to repay some of the Government’s £37 billion bailout of the UK banking sector and therefore returning money to taxpayers.

For the full 2008 year, Lloyds TSB (as it was previously known) made a profit of £807 million - an 80% fall compared with the previous year, while HBOS made a loss for the full year of £11 billion. The two banks together are expected to be in loss this year.

Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums

Story link: 1,500 jobs go as Cheltenham & Gloucester closes all branches