British banking giant Lloyds TSB is planning to cut 16,000 jobs if it succeeds in taking over the Abbey National bank, the Sunday Times has claimed.
Such a cull, to be spread over four years, would take the workforce of the enlarged group down from 107,000 to 91,000, the paper reported.
Meanwhile, executives at Abbey, which employs 30,000, have said that there would also be job cuts if the bank succeeded in its planned counter-proposal, a merger with the Bank of Scotland, but the numbers would be lower because there is less overlap between the two, according to the broadsheet.
Abbey and Bank of Scotland came a step closer to a full merger on Friday, December 15, when they sought approval from regulators for the combination which would create a fifth British banking powerhouse.
The two banks confirmed a month ago that they were in merger talks, but Abbey National has since struggled to fend off a takeover bid from the larger Lloyds TSB outfit.
Bank sector watchers have said that both an Abbey-BoS merger of equals and a Lloyds takeover of Abbey both offer attractive benefits to shareholders.
The British banking sector has been in the grip of merger fever for years, as banks tie the knot to try and cut costs and establish a big enough base to nurture international pretensions.— (AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
