Lloyds (LLOY) is battening down the hatches and preparing for a post-Brexit banking world. With chief executive António Horta-Osório admitting that a deceleration of UK growth seems likely, management announced its intention to accelerate the bank's simplification programme with these first-half results.
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This will involve shedding a further 3,000 jobs and closing 200 branches by the end of 2017. Management also intends to generate savings by reducing its non-branch property portfolio by around 30 per cent by the end of the following year. The aim is that these measures will help slice an extra £400m off the bank's costs, bringing its savings target up to £1.4bn by the end of 2017. The bank has already shaved £600m from costs.