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More jobs are going from Lloyds Banking Group, as it drives towards its £1.5bn cost savings target. There's no great surprise, though there's plenty of disappointment, that 625 people are to go from wholesale banking.

Half of those are to come from Scotland, and they will be "considered" for new jobs being created elsewhere.

As new owner of Halifax Bank of Scotland, Lloyds has made clear it is not going for big job loss numbers. That contrasts with the Royal Bank's recent announcement of up to 9,000 jobs, half of them in Britain, going from its biggest division, providing back office support.

Lloyds says it's working through its divisions, systematically looking for savings and synergy. It's found some already, but it's clear there are lots more to come.

The Unite union reckons that 2,225 job loss announcements have been made so far. And now there's pressure from Jeremy Purvis, LibDem finance spokesman at Holyrood, for them to be much clearer about what they're up to.

"It is becoming apparent that their corporate strategy is to make a series of relatively low key but significant announcements," he said today.

"This should not be used to mask the real picture if they are intending to have large-scale job losses in Scotland in the coming months."

Finance Secretary John Swinney weighed his words carefully when he acknowledged Lloyds recently favoured its Scottish Widows brand over Clerical and Medical, but warned about "the centralisation of activities within the new banking group".

That serves warning to Archie Kane, executive director for Scotland and insurance, that there are potential political implications to Lloyds' plans.

The reckoning from a banking expert watching Lloyds closely from outside is that the likely cuts are far greater than yet acknowledged.

It is calculated that there are actually three mergers going on; Lloyds TSB with HBOS is the obvious one, but managers are also taking the opportunity of crisis in the group to gain much more value from tying Lloyds and TSB more closely than they have been, and from links between Halifax and Bank of Scotland that have not yet been realised.

Three simultaneous mergers, extreme shareholder pressure on the management and a labour market where it's relatively easy to shed staff: it adds up to grim prospects for Lloyds workers.