Closing branches is never a decision that we take lightly but, with more customers taking advantage of technology, the number of customers coming through the doors in these particular branches has fallen. By closing these branches where customer use has dropped, we can invest in the branches that customers do use, said Jon Pain, managing director at Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G), as cited by Finextra.
However, citing The Guardian as a source, Finextra reported that 210 tech jobs are expected to be shipped offshore, with almost half of the group’s IT staff coming from the London, Manchester and Cardiff offices. While 100 of these jobs are permanent, the other 110 are contract positions. In addition, all IT staff will be offered voluntary redundancy.
For customers losing their local branch, the bank has said, as cited in Finextra, that there will generally be a C&G branch in a neighboring town. In addition, there will also be a Lloyds TSB branch within one mile, where affected customers will be able to transact on their C&G account.
The Lloyds TSB-owned group currently has 195 branches and provides mortgages, savings and other financial products and services.
