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UK's Lloyds Banking Group is enabling customers of Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland to access services across any of the three brands' branches, as it looks to streamline operations amid cost-cutting efforts.
The group's decision is seen as a step to optimise customer experience.
Lloyds consumer relationship chief Jayne Opperman was cited by Financial Times as saying in a memo to staff that the group should “evolve how to support customers” in physical branches while “more people are choosing mobile over any other way to bank”.
As part of the group's ongoing business overhaul that started in February 2022, Lloyds has already closed a significant number of branches and reduced its workforce.
The group is still on track to close 55 branches across the UK within the year.
Following these closures, the group is expected to maintain a network of 892 branches—comprising 341 Halifax, 447 Lloyds, and 104 Bank of Scotland locations.
However, the independent trade union for Lloyds employees, BTU, has expressed concern over the new strategy.
BTU was quoted by BBC as saying: “The co-serving of customers is not about engagement or choice, it's about making it easier for Lloyds to close more branches and save more money.”
BTU general secretary Mark Brown was cited by FT as saying that the bank’s decision was “to make it easier for Lloyds to close more branches and save more money” instead of enhancing customer experience.
The union has highlighted that a presentation they viewed indicates that a quarter of the group's branch network overlaps geographically. This could result in further consolidation and closures of high-street branches.
"Lloyds Banking Group allows branch access across brands" was originally created and published by Retail Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand.
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