British banking giant Lloyds Banking Group and insurance company Direct Line have both announced that they plant to cut hundreds of jobs.
Lloyds confirmed that it will be reducing its workforce by 780 full-time jobs this year across its branch network while Direct Line plans to cut 800 jobs across various sites between 2021 and 2022.
Among the jobs that will be slashed at Lloyds were customer advisers, banking consultants and branch managers.
Meanwhile, Direct Line will close down one of its regional offices but the location has not yet been specified. The insurer has various sites, including its headquarters in Bromley, as well as Doncaster, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol and Ipswich.
Direct Line attributed the decision to reduce the workforce to changing customer behavior, such as the move to digital.
Lloyds reported last week a 26% decline in pre-tax profits to £4.4 billion as it paid out billions of pounds to customers in payment protection insurance (PPI) compensation. The banking giant faced costs for mis-selling the insurance policy to people who did not want or need it.
A spokeswoman said: "As customers are using our branches less often, we are reducing the number of roles across our branch network. This means we can shape our service according to customer behavior and local demand. Change does mean difficult decisions and we are focused on supporting our colleagues at this time."
On the other hand, a Direct Line spokeswoman said: "Like many companies we are having to prepare for changes in the way we operate reflecting changing customer behavior where people are increasingly opting to interact with us digitally. We are therefore proposing a number of changes across the business which sadly mean the loss of jobs for some of our people."
"These decisions are always really difficult, we take the well-being of our people very seriously and have given people as much time as possible to prepare," she added.
