Lloyds TSB retains Bank of Scotland and Halifax brands

by Gill Montia

Story link: Lloyds TSB retains Bank of Scotland and Halifax brands

Lloyds TSB will keep the Bank of Scotland and Halifax brands, once its proposed merger with HBOS is complete.

In November the bank announced that the combined businesses would be known as Lloyds Banking Group but it has since decided to retain a multi-brand prescence on the High Street.

Other brands that will form part of the new group are under review; these include Scottish Widows, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Birmingham Midshires and Clerical Medical.

Lloyds has already revealed that it intends to make annual savings of £1.5 billion through the merger, prompting fears of large-scale redundancies.

The merged entity will have 3,000 branches, around 700 more than Royal Bank of Scotland which currently has the largest branch network of any UK bank, taking into account its NatWest outlets.

The Lloyds TSB / HBOS integration could take up to three years and the number of branch closures involved is not yet clear.

However, analysts are predicting that up to 30,000 jobs could go through the closure of branches, call centres and the integration of IT systems.