Lloyds to cut 3,000 jobs and shut branches on Brexit

Lloyds Banking Group said it would step up its cost-cutting plans to help to offset a more testing economic environment caused by Britain’s vote to quit the EU.

Britain’s largest retail bank aims to save £400m (€477.5m) by the end of 2017 by axing a further 3,000 jobs and closing an additional 200 branches to protect its earnings and dividends against the effects of lower-for-longer interest rates.

Lloyds, rescued in a £20.5bn UK taxpayer bailout during the financial crisis, is the first major British bank to report results since the referendum and is the most exposed to any downturn in the British economy.