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Employees at British bank Lloyds Banking Group will have to avoid taking taxis and flying business class as part of cost-cutting measures.
The bank, which is in the midst of a £4 billion strategic review, is making “some adjustments” to its business travel policy to cut both costs and its carbon footprint, according to a memo sent to Lloyds corporate and institutional banking staff earlier this month and seen by the Financial Times.
A memo sent by Lloyd’s chief operating officer Nick Laird said business class flights were now limited to international flights over six hours and domestic flights should be avoided.
He said taxis should only be booked when “no other viable or safe means of transport are available.”
“As our business grows and expands, it is also important to closely manage costs, especially where personal choices have a significant impact,” Laird’s memo reads. “The most obvious example of this is business travel, which has both financial and environmental costs.”
The changes outlined in the memorandum will apply to all 60,000 Lloyds employees, a person familiar with the policy said.
Lloyds Bank’s total market-based carbon emissions increased by 5% year-on-year in 2022-2023, which the bank attributed to “increased carbon emissions associated with business travel and commuting”.
Other new guidelines included restricting first-class train tickets to only those journeys over three hours or when that is the lowest fare. Lloyds Bank said corporate and institutional banking staff had already taken more than 330 flights between London and Edinburgh this year.
Lloyd’s austerity measures, as first reported by Bloomberg, come after similar measures were introduced by HSBC, which is also seeking to cut travel costs as part of a wider cost-cutting effort.
A Lloyds spokesman said: “We are committed every day to delivering on our customers’ financial objectives and are exploring every opportunity to support the group’s net zero ambitions whilst maintaining our industry-leading cost management and strategic focus.”
Lloyds is undergoing a two-year, 4 billion pound strategic transformation plan to diversify its income away from mortgages and towards sources less dependent on interest rate fluctuations, such as asset management and insurance.
The group, led by chief executive Charlie Nunn, has reviewed thousands of middle management posts as part of its digitalisation plans.
Lloyd’s announced plans to overhaul its risk management function and make job cuts to the department this year after an internal investigation found risk management was “getting in the way of our strategic transformation”.
