Lloyds takes axe to pensions sales team

And so it begins, albeit at rather a slow pace. Lloyds TSB Group has unveiled plans to merge its Scottish Widows and Clerical Medial sales force, resulting in 300 redundancies, 50 of which will be in Scotland.

Lloyds, which is looking to save 1.5bn following its merger with HBOS, says that from July the two entities will come under the Scottish Widows brand, meaning 305 sales jobs are under threat.

Scotland has got off comparatively lightly, with just 50 positions set top go north of the border.

Archie Kane, Lloyds' group executive director for insurance, said: "This is the first important step in our aim to establish one simplified organisation."

Ged Nichols, the general secretary of union Accord, said: "Lloyds Banking Group should not be tempted to seek unnecessary job cuts to achieve short-term cost savings to the detriment of the long-term future of the bank and the UK economy as a whole."