Lloyds Banking Group to shut 23 branches and shed another 640 jobs in cost-cutting drive

Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s largest mortgage lender, will eliminate about 640 jobs and close 23 branches as part of a cost-cutting programme that started in October 2014.

The cuts are part of the plan to pare about 9,000 roles by 2017, the Accord labour union, which represents the bank’s employees, said in a statement.

The job losses, which take cuts under the programme to about 7,300 so far, are in divisions such as consumer banking, retail wealth management, and technology operations, with the bank seeking to redeploy some people in other positions.