Lloyds Banking Group is closing down its Irish operations that it inherited when it took over HBOS. Earlier this year, Lloyds had shut Halifax, its retail business in Ireland with 44 branches, and had originally intended to continue its Bank of Scotland (Ireland) unit, but has since decided there was little opportunity for growth in Ireland. Roughly 90% of the 800 people who work at the Irish unit reportedly will be transfers to an independent service company that would handle the run-off of the closing operation.