Lloyds Bank International has announced plans to cut 120 jobs in the island - more than a quarter of its workforce here.

The bank currently employs about 400 staff in the island.

It said 135 roles are set to be lost in the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey but 15 created, making a net reduction of 120, all in the Isle of Man.

In a statement, Lloyds Bank International said it remains fully committed to the islands.

It said as customers increasingly use the online or mobile channels, this has reduced the work in its Isle of Man PhoneBank and Payments Centre.

The changes affect its operations, telephony and payments teams, which will see Lloyds Banking Group’s central teams based in the UK taking over some of the islands’ transactional processing and servicing activity - subject to the completion of the various regulatory approvals.

There is no immediate impact on customers.

Alasdair Gardner, islands director for Lloyds Bank International, said: ’Regrettably change does mean making difficult decisions, and the changes announced today reflect our ongoing plans to continue to make parts of our business more efficient and meet the changing needs of our customers.

’We always look to redeploy wherever possible, with colleagues given access to a package of training and support designed to help them secure their next position whether within or outside the Group.

’We remain fully committed to the islands and the Isle of Man specifically, with our planned move into Villiers House expected during 2021 an example of our ongoing commitment.’A spokesman for the bank said it was not expected any staff would leave before April and May and a 'fair number' would not leave until the second half of the year.This would give time for staff to find roles elsewhere in the Lloyds group but if that was not possible, the bank would help staff to find new jobs elsewhere. He said it was possible that some of the jobs losses could be by way of voluntary redundancy.Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan said: 'Whilst any decision that leads to job reductions is never welcome news, we recognise this is a group wide decision and is not a reflection on the island.'It perhaps reflects the challenges that the banking sector has been experiencing globally.‘The island’s financial services sector remains key to our economy and despite trends in digitisation and consolidation, has consistently highlighted the shortage of skills before the pandemic and ongoing throughout last year.‘We understand that these redundancies will be made in a phased approach, and Isle of Man Treasury, through the Employment and Skills team, are committed to assisting any individual in seeking alternative employment across our extensive financial services, digital and broader economy.'