Scottish Widows / Clerical Medical merger to cost a further 305 jobs at Lloyds

by Gill Montia

Story link: Scottish Widows / Clerical Medical merger to cost a further 305 jobs at Lloyds

Lloyds Banking Group is making a further round of job cuts having announced the loss of 985 posts last week, in relation to the closure of its Bank of Scotland motor finance unit, which has been condemned as financially unviable.

The banking giant has now reported that it is merging its Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical life insurance businesses and will be abandoning the Clerical Medical brand from 1st July.

The move will involve up to 305 job losses across the sales teams of both units and customers service operations.

According to Lloyds’ executive director of insurance, Archie Kane: “This is the first important step in our aim to establish one simplified organisation … we are mindful of the rich heritage and strength of the Clerical Medical brand. However, our research has shown that Scottish Widows is the most recognised and trusted brand in the market place.”

With cost savings of over £1.5 billion planned by 2011, streamlining the life insurance operations of the new group has always been seen as a priority and according to reports, Deutsche Bank has already been instructed to carry out a review of the entire insurance assets of the enlarged business.

When the Lloyds TSB / HBOS merger was announced last year, analysts estimated that around 30,000 jobs could go through the closure of branches and call centres plus the integration of overlapping parts of the business and IT systems.