NINE THOUSAND high-street bank clerks could lose their jobs, a leak revealed yesterday.

Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio is expected to use a strategic review announcement on Tuesday to unveil a new three-year plan — which will include job losses and branch closures.

Bosses at the bank — in which the taxpayer has a 24 per cent stake — say demand for high-street banking has slipped in the past few years.

But workers’ unions suggested yesterday that news of the job losses could unsettle the bank’s newly recovered stability.

A Unite spokesman said: “We would urge financial regulators to investigate how potentially market-sensitive information about Lloyds Bank has repeatedly found its way into the public domain.

“Leaks and speculation about the future of thousands of staff is a reprehensible way to treat customers and a dedicated workforce who have worked hard to get Lloyds back on track.”

The bank has already shed 45,000 jobs since the 2008-09 financial crash and its merger with Halifax Bank of Scotland. 

And earlier this year it hived off 630 branches through the sell-off of its TSB division.

Affinity, the non-TUC-affiliated union for Lloyds staff, condemned the approach taken by managers.

General secretary Mark Brown said: “It is absolutely scandalous that the constant drip, drip, drip approach to job insecurity, which has been another hallmark of the Horta-Osorio era, is set to continue for a further three years.”

Affinity opened a ballot for action short of strike on Wednesday in protest against cuts to pensions. The union said under new plans the only staff member whose pension will retain a final salary element is Mr Horta-Osorio.