LBG multiple brands?

gettinnerdy

Never can understand why Lloyds Banking Group split themselves into competing brands... Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland.

I can understand having a separate brand for Scotland, but I’m surprised Halifax branches haven’t been rebranded as Lloyds Bank?

badmemory

Could be because Halifax is still remembered my many as a building society aka the good guys as against Lloyds a bank aka the bad guys.

Eco_Miser

gettinnerdy wrote: »

Never can understand why Lloyds Banking Group split themselves into competing brands... Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland.

They didn't split themselves, just never combined Lloyds with HBOS after the takeover. HBOS retains its own identity for FSCS purposes, meaning an individual can have £170k in LBG protected, £85k in Lloyds, and £85k in Halifax/BOS.

Meanwhile in other parts of the retail world, common ownership of apparently competing brands is common. It gets the people who wouldn't be seen dead buying brand X if they buy brand Y or brand Z instead, all three being owned by XYZ plc.

System

Eco_Miser wrote: »

They didn't split themselves, just never combined Lloyds with HBOS after the takeover. HBOS retains its own identity for FSCS purposes, meaning an individual can have £170k in LBG protected, £85k in Lloyds, and £85k in Halifax/BOS.
Meanwhile in other parts of the retail world, common ownership of apparently competing brands is common. It gets the people who wouldn't be seen dead buying brand X if they buy brand Y or brand Z instead, all three being owned by XYZ plc.

There isn't a 'HBOS' licence as you and (to be fair MSE) keeps calling it. Bank of Scotland holds the licence and Halifax, Birmingham Midshires etc are all just it's brand names. In the Netherlands, Bank of Scotland even uses the Lloyds Bank brand.

PeacefulWaters

Ignoring BOS, the two brands are dominant in different markets.

If you want to leverage market share in savings and mortgages without churning your back book at great expense then utilise Lloyds. Utilise Halifax for loan and current account acquisition.

There's also the competition question. Keeping the brands separate and supporting switching activity across brand can demonstrate to regulators and politicians, albeit superficially, that they're not just a huge monster of an organisation that should be broken up.

Don80

gettinnerdy wrote: »

Never can understand why Lloyds Banking Group split themselves into competing brands... Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland.

I can understand having a separate brand for Scotland, but I’m surprised Halifax branches haven’t been rebranded as Lloyds Bank?

As others have said, it's not a case of LBG being split, rather LBG is the "umbrella" banking group, registered in Scotland, formed as a result of various takeovers. The banks have all been retained. Well... almost!

Lloyds Bank is the result of the divestment of TSB (formerly Lloyds TSB).

Halifax is just a Bank of Scotland trading name, it's used mainly in England (they have recently opened branches in a few Scottish cities). Halifax ceased to exist as a bank in 2006 when the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 transferred it's assets to the Bank of Scotland.

Edi81

Recently they just moved two other banks into Lloyds.

Scottish Widows Bank and Lloyds Privatd Banking have recently transferred all customer accounts to Lloyds Bank. This means that the LBG group currently only has two banks - a third one Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets will start in 2018 as part of the Ringfencing regulations.

System

Don80 wrote: »

As others have said, it's not a case of LBG being split, rather LBG is the "umbrella" banking group, registered in Scotland, formed as a result of various takeovers. The banks have all been retained. Well... almost!

Lloyds Bank is the result of the divestment of TSB (formerly Lloyds TSB).

Halifax is just a Bank of Scotland trading name, it's used mainly in England (they have recently opened branches in a few Scottish cities). Halifax ceased to exist as a bank in 2006 when the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 transferred it's assets to the Bank of Scotland.

Lloyds Bank is actually just a name change from LloydsTSB.

TSB (Bank) is Lloyds TSB Scotland (another bank) renamed with some of LloydsTSB's branches/customers bolted on.

The European Commission said LBG had to sell either Bank of Scotland or LloydsTSB Scotland - it initially planned to merge them.

PeacefulWaters

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Lloyds Bank is actually just a name change from LloydsTSB.

TSB (Bank) is Lloyds TSB Scotland (another bank) renamed with some of LloydsTSB's branches/customers bolted on.

Never forget Cheltenham and Gloucester branch joining TSB, but leaving the grand name behind at LBG.