Total job losses still in doubt as integration continues

Published on Wednesday 5 August 2009 21:43

LLOYDS refused to be drawn on future job losses, but the Scottish head of the company hinted yesterday that the impact of the integration with HBOS was far from over.

There has been speculation that the merger of the two banks will lead to tens of thousands of job losses, although the company has only announced redundancies in stages. So far, about 8,000 posts have gone across the UK. Archie Kane, the former chief executive of Scottish Widows, said Lloyds was carrying out a major integration, which would see a large number of units merged.

Kane, who heads the group's new Scottish executive board, said the process was still a long way from completion.

"Have we come to the end of (the integration]? No we haven't. We've always said it was a three-year programme ... and it would be wrong of me to say anything other than that we were six months into a three-year programme."

The bank confirmed yesterday that all of the branches in the combined group would eventually be branded as Bank of Scotland.

While products from the other banks will be available to customers in Scotland, the Lloyds and Halifax brands swill lowly disappear in the coming years.

In England and Wales, the Halifax branches will focus primarily on retail services, with Lloyds a "full service" bank, with both retail and business lending.

Bank of Scotland will also offer "full service" services, with retail and business lending.

As well as integrating a number of business in the combined group, Lloyds faces the threat of being forced to sell major parts of the group before it receives approval from the European Commission for the government bail-out. While the bank has refused to comment on its discussions with Brussels on the subject, there has been speculation that it may be forced to sell Scottish Widows, its Edinburgh-based insurance business.

Kane, who joined Scottish Widows in 2003 and is still the deputy chairman, denied the rumours were unsettling to staff.

"In the time since I've been involved with Scottish Widows, I can't think of a time when somebody wasn't asking the question of whether we are for sale."