Tech roles likely to expand at Lloyds Bank despite job cuts

Losses likely to affect front-line and facilities staff, with increases in IT headcount more likely than cuts

The recent round of job cuts at Lloyds Banking Group is unlikely to see reduced headcount within the organisation's technology department, Computing understands.

The group today announced an acceleration of a strategy to reduce the number of branches it operates first announced by its chief executive António Horta-Osório in 2014.

In 2014 Horta-Osório announced that 9,000 jobs would be cut in a drive to digitise the business and move away from branches being available on every high street.

Today the group announced a further 3,000 jobs would be cut, with 200 branches to be closed on top of the original 200 which Horta-Osório said would shut in 2014.

This is despite pre-tax profits of £2.5bn which the group generated for the half-year up to the end of June 2016, a 101 per cent increase year on year.

A spokesperson for Lloyds Banking Group explained that the strategy is a response to a shift in customer demand, with consumers preferring to bank online or via a mobile device rather than visit a high street branch today.

Given this strategy, and the desire to digitise the business in preparation for privitisation, it seems unlikely that the job cuts will see a significantly reduced headcount among technology staff.

However, 640 IT posts were cut in previous rounds of redundancies.

The group's technology function is currently recruiting, with its job search pages shows dozens of senior technology roles, including a data prototyping senior manager with a salary up to £76,000.