A planned merger between the Bank of Scotland and the Abbey
National could save thousands of jobs across the country.
It was announced last week that a bid by Lloyds TSB to merge
with Abbey National would result in an estimated 9,000 job losses but a
spokesman for the Bank of Scotland said that its merger plan would result in
only a fraction of the job losses.
He commented, “Abbey National’s strengths are down south
while ours are in Scotland so there are fewer overlaps of branches.”
The Bank of Scotland has not announced details of its merger
proposals yet and has not revealed exactly how many jobs would be lost if its
plans were given the green light.
The Bank of Scotland has also announced the creation of 100
new jobs in its business banking division across the UK, highlighting growth in
the small to medium sized enterprise market.
By Ben Willmott
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