Britain's Lloyds Bank to axe 490 jobs

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Lloyds Banking Group is to cut a further 490 jobs as deep cost-cutting by high street banks continues to bite.

The redundancies will effect sites in Fareham, Birmingham, London, Halifax and Chester, employee union Unite said.

Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, described the planned cuts as "appalling" and said the union was seeking further clarification on the nature of the redundancies and redeployment opportunities.

Lloyds said it would separately hire 220 new staff, resulting in a net reduction of 270 roles. No branches are being closed and unions were consulted, it added.

The bank said it would redeploy or retrain staff affected where possible.

"Today's announcement involves making difficult decisions, and we are committed to working through these changes in a careful and sensitive way," a spokeswoman for the bank said.

British banks have pursued major cost-cutting in recent years as their profits have come under pressure and more of their customers shun branch services to bank online.

Rival Santander said earlier this month it was shutting almost a fifth of its branch network with the loss of around 840 jobs, while Barclays said it was weighing axing or relocating 280 staff from a call centre in Leeds.

(Reporting By Iain Withers and Lawrence White, editing by Sinead Cruise)