Jobs and branches facing axe

Thousands of jobs in Kent are under threat after Lloyds Bank announced it expects to cut 9,000 staff and close 200 branches in the next three years.

The institution – which is still a quarter owned by the taxpayer – said the move was part of strategic plans as more customers use its online and mobile services.

The bank said the cuts would help it save £1bn a year by the end of 2017 – but it has not yet decided which branches throughout the country it will close.

I t comes as the group revealed underlying profits grew by 41% in the third quarter of this year to £2.2bn.

Lloyds has branches in both Ashford and Tenterden town centres.

Pre-tax profits were £751m even with an extra £900m put aside to deal with PPI claims.

Jobs in areas such as mortgage processing and new account processing look likely to be under threat.

The cuts represent about a 10th of the bank’s workforce.

Lloyds Banking Group – which also includes Halifax and Bank of Scotland – employs about 88,000 people.

It has shed more than 30,000 jobs since the financial crisis, when the government poured in £20bn to rescue it. A Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said: “We do not have the detail of the specific branches that we will be closing currently. We are still going through the process of identifying them.

“Our focus will be on areas where there are overlaps of branches in urban locations – we still have situations where there are two banks of the same brand in medium-size towns, these are the types of branches we will focus on first.

“There is no specific regional focus either.

“We will base our decisions on where customers want us to be, so they can do business with us.

“Our colleagues and customers will be the first to know when we have concrete plans on a site-by-site basis.”