Sabadell's UK bank TSB plans new job cuts, branch closures

LONDON (Reuters) -British bank TSB, owned by Spain's Sabadell, is seeking 250 job cuts and 36 branch closures, a spokesperson for the bank and employee union Unite said on Wednesday, as the lender accelerates a restructuring push to save costs.

The redundancies are expected to fall in the bank's fraud operations, central operations and across TSB's branch network, Unite said, adding that it would seek talks with management in an effort to reduce any additional layoffs.

The proposed job losses come just three months after TSB announced plans to cut around 300 roles in its Risk & Finance, Customer Banking and Customer Delivery teams.

"To meet changing customer needs and for TSB to remain competitive, we are making changes to simplify the way we operate," the bank's spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, TSB said it had set aside 29 million pounds ($36.48 million) to cover the costs of the restructuring.

Cost-cutting measures would reduce staff at TSB by around 5% of its total 5,314 employees and lead to closures of 17% of its total branches, based on the bank's latest quarterly report. By end-March, TSB had 211 branches.

Sabadell has just turned down a takeover offer from larger rival BBVA. The two banks have previously held talks on a deal but these collapsed in 2020.

Differences over the value of TSB were partly to blame for the talks collapsing four years ago, a source with direct knowledge said at that time. TSB was bought by Sabadell in 2015 for 1.7 billion pounds ($2.29 billion).

BBVA did not want to pay more than 2.5 billion euros for Sabadell, which was not willing to accept less than 3 billion euros, the source said at the time, with the difference partly down to TSB.

Sabadell has now put earlier plans to sell TSB on hold.

Unite regional officer Andy Case described the TSB's restructuring plans as a "grave mistake".

"These workers perform essential work in the fraud departments and across the branch network. TSB customers will rightly be concerned by today's news and they will undoubtedly suffer a downgrade in service from these job cuts."

(Reporting By Sinead Cruise; additional reporting by Jesús Aguado in Madrid; Editing by Amanda Cooper and Jane Merriman)