Lloyds Banking Group is to shed nearly 400 jobs as part of company-wide plans to boost the bank’s online and mobile services.

The shake-up, which forms part of a three year plan to equip the bank for an increasingly competitive digital market, will also see 435 new roles created in the bank’s transformation division.

The newly-created roles will be focussed on engineering and design to step up performance of Lloyds’ digital and mobile-first products and services.

A spokesman for the bank emphasised that the decision would result in a “net increase in the number of roles within the organisation” equating to 55 jobs and added that efforts were being made to retrain existing staff members in the digital skills needed for the future.

The changes are understood to be focussed on roles in the bank’s commercial banking, people and productivity, retail and transformation divisions.

More than 1,300 roles have already been cut this year as the bank looks to digital transformation as the key to staying ahead of challenger banking operations such as Monzo and Starling.

In February, the banking group announced that it would be investing more than £3 billion in the digitalisation of products and services for customers.

A spokeswoman for Lloyds Banking Group said: “Whilst today’s announcements will result in an overall net increase in the number of roles within our organisation, as it reskills colleagues to meet customers’ rapidly changing requirements, it does involve making difficult decisions.

"The Group’s policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people in the first instance," she added.

Separately, Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it is to close a further 54 branches across England and Wales, resulting in the loss of 258 jobs.

The latest closures come on top of plans announced in January this year to close 162 RBS branches as customers turn to online banking.

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