Lloyds standing small with new micro-branches
Not only is Lloyds cutting branches across the UK, it is now making them smaller in size.
With the well-known rise in digital banking, the bank has plans to introduce micro-branches. This means no counters, and two members of staff with mobile tablets to help customers who dare walk into a branch.
A spokesperson for the bank says in a statement to Business Insider: “We’re transforming branches, responding to customers and giving them choice, including new flagship branches in city centre locations, and introducing some smaller micro-formats alongside our community and mobile branches.”
According to Business Insider, the “new ‘micro’ format will use much less space than existing branches, in some cases as little as 1,000 square feet”.
Some of the branches being converted will also be Halifax and Bank of Scotland branches.
Cuts run deep
As Banking Technology previously reported in November, Lloyds is getting rid of a further 49 branches and 665 jobs. The bank will offer services via mobile vans to the communities affected by the branch closures.
Lloyds was bailed out in 2008 and has been on a restructuring path since. It has separated and sold its domestic retail business, TSB (now owned by Spanish banking group Sabadell), and is looking to shed 12,000 jobs and close 400 branches by the end of 2017.
The bank says that the branch use across its brands (Lloyds, HBOS and Bank of Scotland) has been falling 15% year on year – hence the closures are necessary.
