ANOTHER 45 branches are to go at Lloyds Banking Group next year, the company announced today.

The closures will bring the total loss across the group to 276 in this year and next, and is the latest in a series of announcements of branch closures and job losses across the sector totalling 623 this year.

In a statement, the group announced 22 Halifax, 19 Lloyds and four of its Bank of Scotland branches will be axed, but has assured workers that they will be redeployed and no compulsory redundancies are planned.

It comes just days after Barclays announced 185 branch closures and 900 job losses in a moved described by Unite as “disgraceful.”

Jenny Ross, Which? money editor, called the closures “yet another nail in the coffin” for British high street banking, with some towns losing more than one bank in a matter of days or weeks.

She said: “Consumers are being left on a cliff-edge as in-person banking services are axed from their communities.”

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said: “The way customers choose to bank with us has changed rapidly in recent years, and we now offer a wide range of options for their everyday banking needs.”