Lloyds Bank to cut over a thousand jobs as 49 branches are AXED

In a further blow to the UK's highstreet, 1,230 jobs will be axed across Lloyds branch network, while some central functions will also be terminated as part of this move.

In a statement, the banking giant said it would try and redeploy people wherever possible and only administer compulsory redundancies as a "last resort".

The group is also creating 925 roles elsewhere in the business and insisted the overall job losses would be 305.

The new roles being created will come as part of a pledge to invest $3billion on technology and training staff under a new three-year strategy.

A spokesman for Lloyds said: "These branch closures are in response to changing behaviour and the reduced number of transactions being made in branches."

On the job cuts, he said: "The group's policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the group.

"Since 2011, over 90% of role reductions have been achieved through a combination of natural attrition, redeployment and voluntary redundancy.

"Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company, we will look to achieve this by offering voluntary redundancy. Compulsory redundancies will always be a last resort."

It has also vowed to expand its mobile branch network by another seven to 36 to assist the branch closures.

In February the bank vowed to spend more than £3 billion on IT as more customers are accessing their accounts online.

The bank had 70,255 staff as of the end of June, down from around 99,000 employees in 2011.