* Union says job cuts a "complete disgrace"
* Lloyds says will attempt to redeploy staff
LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group said on Wednesday it was axing 940 jobs, bringing the totalamount cut since its ill-fated takeover of HBOS in 2009 to morethan 31,000.
Lloyds said the jobs would be lost in its operations,insurance, retail, wealth, international and commercialdivisions and were part of the reductions previously announcedin its strategic review.
The part-nationalised bank said in June 2011 that it plannedto save 1.5 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) by letting 15,000staff go.
British trade union Unite "expressed fury" over thedecision, highlighting the bank's decision to outsource 190 ITjobs as part of the changes.
"It is a complete disgrace that the bank, which is 41percent owned by the taxpayer, continues to cut jobs in such acavalier way," Unite said in a statement.
Lloyds said it would look to avoid compulsory redundancieswhere possible and only use them as a last resort.
"The group's policy is always to use natural turnover and toredeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise andknowledge within the group. Compulsory redundancies will alwaysbe a last resort," it said.
Lloyds paid a heavy price for its government engineeredtakeover of HBOS, requiring a 20 billion pounds state bailout.HBOS was caught out by a near-shutdown of wholesale fundingmarkets, on which it was more reliant than rivals.
The bank said on Wednesday that just under half the jobslost in 2009 and 2010 through integration following its mergerwith HBOS had been through redundancy.
Lloyds (LLOY)
