LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group took another 900 million pound ($1.45 billion) charge to compensate customers for mis-sold loan insurance on Tuesday and unveiled plans to axe 9,000 jobs and about 150 branches to cut costs.
The extra payment protection insurance (PPI) bill will take the bank's total costs for the issue to more than 11 billion pounds, representing well over a third of the industry's bill.
Britain's biggest retail bank said it will close 150 branches over the next three years - about 6 percent of its network - in response to more customers banking online, and would axe 9,000 jobs as it automates some support functions.
As part of a strategic plan for the next three years unveiled alongside third quarter results, the bank said it will invest 1 billion pounds in digital technology.
It plans to lend an additional 30 billion pounds across Britain over that period, aiming to grow in areas where it is under-represented, including consumer lending and financial planning and retirement.
The bank said it remained confident in its discussions with the UK regulator over being able to resume its dividend, but gave no further details or forecasts on when that might happen.
Lloyds reported an underlying profit of 2.2 billion pounds in the third quarter, up 41 percent from a year ago, as losses from bad debts fell sharply. Statutory profit in the latest quarter was 751 million pounds.
(Reporting by Matt Scuffham and Steve Slater; Editing by Clare Hutchison)
