LLOYDS Banking Group has said it will axe 1,660 jobs and close the entire Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) branch network, just a day after it started to pay back its government loan.
The cuts are the latest in a string of headcount reductions in the wake of the part-nationalised bank's controversial merger with HBOS, which cost Lloyds £10 billion in losses.
The latest cuts sparked fury from unions and politicians, as the 150
-year-old C&G became another high street name to fall victim to the credit crunch.
The partly nationalised bank's 164 branches, four of them in Scotland, will close in November, although the C&G brand name will remain.
The news came just a day after Lloyds raised £4 billion from investors to pay back the government for its bailout.
Politicians blamed the job cuts – on top of nearly 3,000 since April – on the HBOS takeover.
Liberal Democrat MSP Jim Tolson said 300 staff in Dunfermline had been warned they could face the axe.
He said: "The blame for these cuts lies squarely with Labour ministers at Westminster. They are a direct consequence of the UK government pushing through the Lloyds-HBOS merger.
"Ministers must make sure that there is a plan to support those members of staff who will be affected by the latest round of Lloyds job cuts."
The Unite trade union said the closure of the C&G branch network was a "disgrace", adding that it was "appalled" that staff had heard about the decision through the media.
The union's joint leader Derek Simpson said: "UK taxpayers have not poured billions of pounds into this organisation just to see it sack thousands of hard-working people.
"Front-line staff in banks across the country are blameless for the mistakes of management which have brought the important finance industry to the brink of collapse. This is truly a dark day for the financial services sector in this country."
MP John McFall, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, accused Lloyds of having "betrayed a regard to the dignity" of the workforce.
He pressed Treasury Exchequer Secretary Kitty Ussher to join him in urging the bank to ensure those who lost their jobs were treated properly.
Ms Ussher said staff numbers were a commercial matter for Lloyds, but that all MPs would want to make sure staff were treated "as decently as possible".
The branch closures will see 833 full-time jobs scrapped and hundreds more will go in other parts of the business.
Lloyds said it was also closing the Chester office of the personal loans business, and moving operations to London, with 265 full-time jobs lost.
Trimming the number of its Black Horse personal finance centres and moving its car financing arm, CarSelect, from Cardiff to Birmingham will result in the loss of 140 jobs by October and 159 jobs will be cut in mortgage sales.
Helen Weir, Lloyds Banking Group's executive director of retail, said: "The strategic focus for C&G from now on will be to further strengthen its intermediary and direct savings businesses."
Vanishing high street namesTHE loss of Cheltenham & Gloucester from the high street adds to the eradication of other brands since the credit crunch triggered a string of high-profile takeovers.
Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley were all taken over by Spanish giant Santander, which is to replace their identities with its own distinctive flaming red logo by the end of next year.
Britannia Building Society could also be phased out after it was taken over by Co-op.
In Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS branches are to be re-branded Bank of Scotland.
Nationwide has pledged to maintain the Dunfermline Building Society name, but this may change in future.
Glasgow centre takes hit as RBS unveils details of job-cut plansUP TO 500 jobs are to go from the Royal Bank of Scotland's group manufacturing division, adding to the wave of redundancies in the financial services industry.
About 140 back-office jobs are to be axed from the Glasgow cash centre. The news, which was released by trade union Unite yesterday, is part of a bigger purge of 4,500 posts in the UK. RBS plans to shed as many roles again in its operations abroad.
Unite has warned that it will oppose compulsory job losses.
Rob McGregor, Unite national officer, said that staff were told yesterday that they were at risk of redundancy.
He said: "(This] will devastate staff. Unite is opposed to compulsory job losses and through continued consultation with the bank will seek to find suitable alternative employment for workers."
A spokeswoman for RBS said that the job losses had been announced last month.
"On 7 April we announced that we would be cutting 4,500 roles in the UK over the next two years in our manufacturing division …
"Today's consultations with staff are an ongoing part of the process.
"It is our firm intention to ensure that the number of compulsory redundancies is kept to an absolute minimum."
