Lloyds Bank To Sack 3,000 Jobs , Shuts 200 Branches

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High street bank seeks to cut costs in anticipation of interest rate cut and cites 15% fall in use of branches, The Guardian reports.

Lloyds Banking Group had already announced 9,000 job cuts as part of a three-year cost-cutting programme.

Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, signalled that an interest rate cut would take place during the summer and the City now expects rates will be cut from their 0.5% historic low on 4 August.

Lloyds is also blaming a fall in the use of branches by customers for the job cuts, which come on top of 9,000 announced in a three-year cost-cutting programme in October 2014. These followed 45,000 jobs that went after the rescue of HBOS during the 2008 crisis. Lloyds, which also owns Halifax, now employs about 75,000 people.

The announcement came as Lloyds – which is 9% taxpayer-owned and the UK’s biggest mortgage lender – revealed it was being investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority for the way it handled customers who were having difficulty paying their mortgages.