Lloyds Bank ups digital commitment and promises 20,000 'Digital Champions' by 2017
Lloyds Banking Group has pledged that one in four of its colleagues will be dedicated to helping people and organisations use the internet to improve digital skills and financial capability by 2017.
This latest commitment builds on the work Lloyds Bank has already achieved as a founding partner of digital skills charity Go On UK, which aims to help everyone in the UK up their digital skilset.
Lloyds' so-called 'Digital Champions' will be spread across the business, with those in community banks playing a key role in establishing the first 7,000 of 20,000 Champions by the end of 2015.
Around 8.3 million people do not use the Internet and one in five adults lack basic digital skills, according to figures from the Go On UK BBC Understanding Digital Capabilities report.
Discussing the new digital commitment, Miguel-Ángel Rodríguez-Sola, group director for digital, at Lloyds Banking Group said: “As the largest provider of banking products in the UK, we impact on the lives of over 10 million digital customers every day. I strongly feel we have a responsibility to ensure that people from all backgrounds are financially included. I also believe the use of technology is a crucial way we can achieve this."
Around 1.2 million small to medium-sized UK businesses (SMEs) lack basic digital skills, missing out on potential revenue and customer interaction, according to the latest UK Business Digital Index by Lloyds Bank.