June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, plans to cut about 2,100 jobs, bringing the total number of positions the bank has eliminated since April to more than 7,650.

About 1,400 jobs will be eliminated in group operations and about 700 positions in the commercial banking unit, all in the U.K., the London-based bank said today in a statement. Of the losses, about 700 will go through “natural attrition.” The bank also said about 350 new positions will be created.

Chief Executive Officer Eric Daniels pledged to save more than 1.5 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) by 2011 following the acquisition of HBOS Plc. The merged bank has about 129,000 U.K. employees, according to spokeswoman Eve Speight, along with 3,000 branches and a 28 percent share of Britain’s mortgage market. U.K. financial-services companies told a Confederation of British Industry survey this week that they may cut 13,000 jobs in the third quarter.

“Morale is now truly low as employees across Lloyds are in a permanent state of anxiety,” Rob MacGregor, national officer at the Unite union, said in a statement. “As a taxpayer- supported organization, real questions need to be asked as to how far this bank can be allowed to go.”

Of the total job losses in group operations, 700 will affect permanent employees and another 700 positions will be cut by shedding agency staff, Lloyds said. The bank plans to combine “several heritage Lloyds TSB and HBOS operational support functions.” At the commercial banking unit, Lloyds is shutting five commercial centers and considering the closure of a further 34.

Compulsory Redundancies

The bank also said it won’t be cutting any further permanent staff at its Channel Islands and Isle of Man operations after announcing 240 job losses at its offshore business last week. Compulsory redundancies will be a “last resort,” the lender said.

The British government should press for the return of jobs that Lloyds moved to India, where the company employs about 4,500 people, the LTU trade union said in an e-mailed statement today.

“To refuse to return jobs to the U.K. is, frankly, a disgrace,” the union said. The LTU is lobbying lawmakers “to persuade the government to use its 43 percent stake in Lloyds to force the board to reverse this unethical policy and save U.K. jobs,” it said.

Offshore Support

The bank “has decided not to offshore any further permanent existing operational roles,” it said. Even so “existing work undertaken offshore will remain unchanged and the group will continue to use offshore support for some short- term peaks in operations work.”

Lloyds fell 0.9 percent to 69.93 pence in London for a market value of 19 billion pounds ($31.3 billion).

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest government-controlled bank, has cut 22,320 employees since the credit crisis began two years ago, the most of any U.K. lender. The bank has announced 11,700 job cuts this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew MacAskill in London at amacaskill@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 30, 2009 11:39 EDT