Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s largest mortgage provider, will announce about 9,000 job cuts next week as its customers shift to online services from physical branches, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

The bank will detail the cuts, a target for branch closures and the increasing automation of its services as part of a new three-year plan on Oct. 28, when it releases third-quarter results, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the strategy hasn’t been finalized. The job cull may be the biggest round of cuts since at least 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Chief executive officer Antonio Horta-Osorio, 50, has been seeking ways to bolster earnings to help return Lloyds to full private ownership. The bank, which has about 88,000 full-time employees, has eliminated more than 37,000 jobs in the aftermath of its government bailout in 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show. 

Branch transactions are falling 10 percent a year, according to the British Bankers’ Association. This may lead Britain’s six largest banks to trim the country’s 8,000-strong branch network by as much as 75 percent in the next decade, Deutsche Bank AG has estimated.

Sky News reported the plans Wednesday. Andrew Swailes, a London-based spokesman for the lender, declined to comment. The bank is 25 percent owned by the government.

Lloyds carved out 631 branches when it sold shares in TSB Banking Group Plc in June. The lender still has a network of more than 2,000 branches throughout the U.K., according to its website. (Bloomberg)