Lloyds to axe a fifth of office space
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Lloyds is to axe a fifth of its office space after becoming the latest bank to embrace the home working revolution sweeping the City.
Britain's biggest high-street bank is to cut 20pc of offices by 2023, slashing 8pc this year.
It comes a day after HSBC announced it will close 40pc of offices worldwide, while Metro Bank boss Daniel Frumkin said separately on Wednesday that he plans to shift many workers' desks into unused space in the branch network.
Lloyds' decision is a fresh blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's hopes that employees will flood back to their old haunts when Covid restrictions end. The spate of announcements on flexible working are likely to alarm Treasury mandarins who fear town and city centre economies could be hammered if staff stay away.
A survey by Lloyds found that three quarters of staff would like to work from home three or more days a week in the future. The lender said flexibility will vary from team to team.
The proposals are a sharp contrast with the position taken by US investment bank Goldman Sachs. Its chief executive David Solomon repeated his desire to get staff back to the office on Wednesday, telling a Credit Suisse conference: “This is not ideal for us and it’s not a new normal.
“It’s an aberration that we are going to correct as quickly as possible.”
Barclays boss Jes Staley has also said working from home is "getting old", while the City of London has this year approved three skyscraper developments.
Lloyds laid out its plans alongside a set of full-year results that showed a 72pc plunge in profits for 2020, from £4.4bn to £1.2bn.
This nonetheless beat analyst forecasts of a £905m profit, and the £4.2bn put aside for soured loans was lower than previously estimated.
Finance chief William Chalmers said the four-step exit out of lockdown announced on Monday is likely to reduce the economic damage feared by the bank.
Lloyds is to pay a dividend of 0.57p per share after it was forced to suspend payments last year during an industry-wide Covid ban. The lender also outlined plans to expand its wealth business.
It will not pay bonuses for 2020 due to the fall in profits, but will give all staff shares worth £400. The bank paid out bonuses worth £310m in 2019.
Outgoing chief executive António Horta-Osório, who was paid £3.4m last year, is leaving for Credit Suisse in April after pocketing a total of £55m during a decade at the helm.
Incoming chief executive Charlie Nunn currently runs HSBC's wealth arm, overseeing $1.4 trillion worth of assets. He will take over in summer.
Lloyds shares rose in morning trade but then fell almost 1pc to 38.9p, valuing the bank at £27.5bn. The stock stood at 53p a year ago.
Metro Bank also reported its results on Wednesday, revealing that its losses had widened from £11.7m to £271.8m for the year as it estimated a £124m hit from the pandemic.
