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Britain's biggest mortgage lender said the branch cuts were part
of 200 closures announced last July, and the move was in
response to changing customer behavior toward making more online
transactions.
The Lloyds group has more than 2,000 branches across the United
Kingdom, and approximately 75,000 employees, according to its
website.
The trade union Unite condemned the closures, which it said
would affect 54 Lloyds branches, 22 Halifax branches and 24 Bank
of Scotland branches.
"The continuous stream of branch closures announced by the UK's
retail bank branches appears to show no signs of ending," said
Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer.
Lloyds earlier this week announced it would reduce some branches
to just two staff with tablet computers, in response to fewer
customers visiting high street sites and increasingly banking
online.
The new smaller branches will not have counters, with customers
paying in cash and cheques through self-service machines and
talking to mortgage advisers through video links.
This comes as Lloyds is poised to pass a significant milestone
in its recovery from the financial crisis after the government
sold more shares in the lender this week and the bank expected
to return to private hands next month.
A report by lawmakers last month warned Britain's poor and
vulnerable people were hardest hit by bank branch closures,
echoing a report by Reuters last June that showed banks were
disproportionately closing branches in the lowest-income areas
while expanding in wealthier ones.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Lawrence White; Editing by
Mark Potter)
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