London, July 29 : The negative impacts of Brexit have already started hitting the British economy as British Lloyds Banking Group on Friday announced, that it is cutting 3,000 jobs and shutting 200 branches, as the lender braces for a cut in interest rates following Britain's exit from European Union.
British Lloyds Banking Group, partly state-backed bank said, it will extend the cost-cutting programme which was announced in 2014, and the "expected lower for longer interest rate environment" will see the new cuts come into effect by the end of 2017.
As the fallout from the Brexit vote intensifies, the Bank of England is expected to cut interest rates from 0.5% to 0.25% next week.
Lloyds is targeting 1.4 billion in cost savings by the end of next year. The bank in a statement said, "Given the uncertainty, it is too early to determine the impact on our formal longer term guidance at this stage.
However, while the business will remain highly capital generative, it is possible that this capital generation may be somewhat lower in future years than previously guided." "Following the EU referendum the outlook for the UK economy is uncertain and while the precise impact is dependent upon a number of factors including EU negotiations and political and economic events, a deceleration of growth seems likely," the Nation quoted Lloyds Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said.
"The UK, however, enters this period of uncertainty from a position of strength, following continued private sector deleveraging, significantly improved mortgage affordability and low levels of unemployment," he added.
The announcement was made alongside results for the first half of the year, which saw statutory profits more than double to 2.5 billion, but the lender warned that Brexit could have an adverse impact on its future performance.
The total number of jobs cut since the announcement of an efficiency drive in 2014 will stand at 12,000 by the end of 2017.
The closure of its 200 branches comes on top of another 200 already earmarked for closure at Lloyds, which is 9 percent owned by the Government.
Source: ANI
