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Lloyds Banking Group is scrapping the 173-year-old Halifax brand that has been a mainstay of British high streets.
The UK’s biggest retail bank announced on Wednesday that Lloyds would become the group’s main brand and that all Halifax branches would be renamed throughout next year.
The changes will not affect Lloyds’ Bank of Scotland division, which will remain the lead brand for its Scottish customers. Halifax and Bank of Scotland were the legacy HBOS brands that Lloyds took over at the height of the financial crisis.
Wednesday’s move is part of a long-running push by Lloyds to simplify the branding between its Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds divisions. The FTSE 100 lender’s branch network and mobile phone applications already serve all customers of each of its brands.
The changes will not result in job losses or further branch closures, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Jas Singh, chief executive for Consumer Relationships at Lloyds, said: “Our Halifax customers will keep everything they know and love today — the same fantastic app design, the same friendly faces in our branches — even the same sort code and account number. But as Lloyds customers, they’ll get the best innovation and experiences we offer.”
Halifax was set up in West Yorkshire in 1853 to address housing shortages at the height of the industrial revolution as workers migrated into small towns across England. The Halifax Permanent Benefit Building Society allowed individuals to deposit cash to earn a return while helping borrowers to take out funds to buy houses. The group became the largest building society in the world in 1928 when it merged with a rival.
In 1997, the group’s members voted to convert from a building society into a public limited company as part of a big wave of demutualisation among British building societies. In 2001, the company merged with Bank of Scotland to create the UK’s fifth-largest lender known as HBOS.
HBOS grew aggressively but its risky lending policies and weak balance sheet caused it to face collapse during the banking crisis. The government brokered a deal for Lloyds TSB to buy the bank in a £12bn takeover. It was forced to accept a £20bn taxpayer bailout in 2009.
The brand changes come as British banks accelerate plans to close branches across high streets. In February, Lloyds announced plans to shut 95 branches across its three divisions, 31 of which were Halifax. The bank operates through 610 branches in the UK.
