(20 November 2009 – UK) Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group plans to sell off 600 retail branches as part of an agreement to secure a STG17billion (A$30.72 billion) government capital injection.The European Union regulators have said that by reducing the group’s branches by 4.6 percent it would help remove any competitive advantage Lloyd’s gets from the government bailout and allow another rival to emerge.
The executive for the European Union has also approved an exit fee for the bank to pay to reverse its planned involvement in the government asset guarantee program.
The British government owns 43 percent of LBG after bailing it out of when the bank was floundering due to the global financial crisis.
Lloyds also announced earlier in the month that it would be cutting 5000 positions by the end of 2010.