The British establishment indicates that it adapts to the practices of its customers. Employees whose position is abolished must be offered other jobs in the group.
The British bank Lloyd’s announced on Wednesday the elimination of 60 branches in the United Kingdom, its customers having more and more recourse to its online services, the use of which is reaching “records”.
Some 124 jobs will be cut but employees are to be offered other jobs in the group, which currently has 739 branches in the UK, according to a statement.
This decision follows similar measures unveiled last week by HSBC, which said it was closing 69 branches with 400 job cuts.
“As is the case for many businesses, fewer and fewer customers are visiting our branches” and “we must adapt to the significant growth of customers who choose to do most of their banking online” , justifies the group.
While the scarcity in rural or peri-urban areas of services such as banking or the post office has been decried by organizations fighting against precariousness, Lloyd’s emphasizes that customers of branches affected by a closure will have access to banking services and ATMs “within a radius of one and a half kilometers at most”.
The group adds in a press release planning the opening of “banking hubs” in several cities, where a counter will be opened inside the post office for basic banking operations.
In these “bank hubs”, a “community banker from the largest British banks” will also be available once a week for “more specialized” services.
The Unite union reacted by saying that more bank branch closures were “tearing the hearts of local communities”.
These branches serve “SMEs, vulnerable, elderly or disabled people” and “leaving a cash dispenser in place of a bank branch is totally insufficient”, continues Unite.
“The banking sector must answer important questions about its social responsibility and the government cannot stand by and allow the continued closure of local banking services,” concludes the union.