LLOYDS has been criticised for demoralising staff after the banking group said it was slashing 360 jobs.

The posts will be lost across its wholesale and insurance divisions and human resources. A spokeswoman for Lloyds said 60 to 80 employees in Scotland, mainly based in Edinburgh, had been told their jobs were at risk.

A process of consultation on redundancies is now under way.

The latest cull takes the total number of job losses since Lloyds TSB’s takeover of the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBoS) in 2009 to more than 27,000.