Antonio Horta-Osorio pledges to retain same number of Lloyds branches

The group, which is the UK’s biggest retail bank with 2,902 branches, said last March it would not close any outlets until the end of the year while new boss Antonio Horta-Osorio carried out a strategic review.

Yesterday it said it will keep branch numbers the same for the next three years, meaning that if it closes one, another will be opened. It also said it will not close a site if it is the last one in a community.

The announcement does not include the 632 sites it will sell to the Co-operative Group at the end of 2013 after it was ordered to scale down by the European Commission in return for taking bail-out money.

Horta-Osorio said: “We want to put the customer at the heart of everything we do and it is why last year we put a moratorium on branch closures.

“Today we commit to keeping the same number of branches on a net basis, over the next three years. And we also commit not to close a branch if we are the last one in a community.

“Branches are at the heart of how we serve customers and are at the centre of our communities. The branch network will continue to play a vital part in our future plans.”

Rivals, including HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland, have closed branches in recent months.

The pledge comes after the bank implemented a streamlining of its management, reducing the number of people reporting directly to the chief executive from 14 to ten. The new structure is designed to mitigate the workload of Horta-Osorio, who was forced to take a stress-related leave of absence last year.

Three departments – human resources, legal & secretariat, and group audit – will report to a newly-created group corporate functions director. Other areas – retail, commercial, wholesale, insurance, wealth and international – will continue to report to Horta-Osorio. David Nicholson, group director of the Halifax Community Bank, will report to the head of retail, Alison Brittain.