Lloyds Banking Group is reviewing its approach after using staff bank account information during pay negotiations in 2023, reported The Times.  

Chief executive Charlie Nunn told employees about this move at a recent internal meeting.  

The FTSE 100 lender faced criticism from some unions and scrutiny from the Information Commissioner’s Office over the matter. 

Nunn acknowledged concerns raised by the incident, stating that “we clearly need to look at the lessons learnt” and admitting that it “obviously has created some concern”.  

He also said, “we definitely have listened to it” and indicated that a full review would take place: “We haven’t yet fully worked out what we will do differently going forward, although I think we should just do the investigation fully.” 

Lloyds invites its workforce of 64,000 to hold accounts with the bank. 

In November, it was revealed that aggregated and anonymised data from employees’ accounts had been used during pay talks for 2026 and 2027.  

The method drew criticism from Mark Brown of Affinity, a union not officially recognised by Lloyds, who described it as “sinister, and smacks of Big Brother”. 

Despite this, Nunn told staff the practice was “a legal use case of using aggregated data for a relevant business outcome” and added that “two recognised unions were very comfortable” with it.  

He said further reflection was needed: “But we clearly need to look at the lessons learnt from that and you’ll see what that means going forward. So I recognise the feeling.” 

The pay review resulted in average salary increases for junior staff of between 7% and 9%, with a minimum wage rising to £27,400 by 2027 as part of an agreement with Accord and Unite unions. 

A spokesperson for Lloyds clarified that Nunn’s comments referred to an internal review rather than a “formal investigation”. 

Lloyds also disclosed last week that Nunn received £7.4m in pay for 2025. Under proposed changes to executive pay policy, his remuneration could rise to £13.9m this year or £17.7m if certain performance targets are achieved. 

The group owns Halifax and Bank of Scotland, which was fined by the UK watchdog over an account for a sanctioned individual. 

In a statement, Lloyds said it was “committed to fair and progressive pay that provides certainty and support for all colleagues, and in this case more junior colleagues. 

“We have worked hard with our unions, using aggregated data and direct colleague input and we are pleased that members of our recognised unions have voted to support our competitive multi-year pay proposal for 2026 and 2027 by a significant majority.”