Lloyds Banking Group's fund management and insurance unit, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, Friday set a restructure that will see more than half of its UK-based equities fund managers losing their jobs as the company shifts emphasis away from active equity fund management and toward trading strategies driven by computer models.

The changes come against a background of persistent speculation that Lloyds - in which the UK government is a 41% shareholder following a bailout during the financial crisis - is planning to sell the unit, although Lloyds management has so far denied the speculation.