Lloyds Banking Group axes another 4,500 jobs as part of HBOS integration

Lloyds Banking Group, the biggest mortgage lender in the UK, will axe 4,500 jobs in its administrative and information technology division, the latest round of cuts as part of its integration of HBOS.

The banking giant, which is 41 per cent-owned by the UK government, said the cuts will affect about 1,600 permanent staff across the UK and 1,150 temporary and contract workers as well as 1,750 offshore contractors.

The job cuts, which will reduce the London-based bank's staff strength by at least 25 per cent at its IT division, are due to the IT-system integration of HBOS.

It is the latest round of job losses at the bank, which has now axed 22,800 jobs since the since the takeover of HBOS last year.

The bank has resorted to axing 8,000 employees since January 2009, when Lloyds TSB took over HBOS to become Lloyds Banking Group, and axed another 5,000 employees in November 2009 as the troubled bank continues its cut costs by £1.5 billion a year by the end of 2011.

''Today marks another major step in bringing our businesses together,'' Mark Fisher, director of group operations at Lloyds, said in a statement. ''We have mitigated the impact on permanent staff with a significant release of temporary and contract staff.''

The news, however has not gone well with the Unite union and Cath Speight, national officer at Unite said, ''It is an absolute disgrace that Lloyds, which is being kept alive by the taxpayer, is cutting more jobs and moving their jobs out of the UK.''

"Lloyds Banking Group is committed to working through these changes with employees carefully and sensitively. All affected employees have been briefed by their line manager today. The group's union partners were consulted prior to this announcement and will continue to be consulted throughout the process,'' said the bank in a statement.