Lloyds Banking Group plc is a British
financial institution
A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institution, is a business entity that provides service as an intermediary for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial ins ...
formed through the acquisition of
HBOS
HBOS plc is a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland plc, which ...
by
Lloyds TSB
Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the " Big Four" clearing banks.
Established in Birmingham in 1765, Lloyds Bank e ...
in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees.
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...
was founded in 1765 but the wider Group's heritage extends over 320 years, dating back to the founding of the
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial bank, commercial and clearing (finance), clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Par ...
by the
Parliament of Scotland
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in 1695.
The Group's headquarters are located at 25
Gresham Street
Gresham Street in the City of London is named after the English merchant and financier Thomas Gresham.
It runs from the junction of Lothbury, Old Jewry and Coleman Street at its eastern end, to St. Martin's Le Grand in the west. Gresham St ...
in the
City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
, while its registered office is on
The Mound
The Mound is an artificial slope and road in central Edinburgh, Scotland, which connects Edinburgh's New and Old Towns. It was formed by dumping around 1,501,000 cartloads of earth excavated from the foundations of the New Town into Nor Loc ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. It also operates office sites in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
,
Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
,
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...
and
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
. The Group also has overseas operations in the US and Europe. Its headquarters for business in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
is in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
The business operates under a number of distinct brands, including
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...
,
Halifax,
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial bank, commercial and clearing (finance), clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Par ...
and
Scottish Widows
Scottish Widows Limited is a life insurance, pensions and investment company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is a part of Lloyds Banking Group. The company has been providing financial services to the UK market since 1815 and its product range ...
. Former Chief Executive
António Horta-Osório told ''
The Banker
''The Banker'' is an English-language monthly international financial affairs publication owned by '' The Financial Times'' and edited in London, United Kingdom. The magazine was first published in January 1926 through founding editor Brendan ...
'', "We will keep the different brands because the customers are very different in terms of attitude".
["António Horta-Osório moves out of his comfort zone"](_blank)
''The Banker'', April 2011
Lloyds Banking Group is listed on the
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
(LSE) and is a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...
. It had a
market capitalisation
Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders.
Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...
of approximately as of 31 December 2024—the 21st-largest of any LSE listed company—and has a secondary listing on the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...
in the form of
American depositary receipts.
History
Origins
Lloyds Bank is one of the oldest banks in the UK, tracing its establishment to Taylors and Lloyds founded in 1765 in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
by button maker
John Taylor and iron producer and dealer
Sampson Lloyd II. Through a series of mergers, Lloyds became one of the
Big Four banks
The Big Four (or Big 4) is the colloquial name given to the four main banks in several countries where the banking industry is dominated by just four institutions and where the phrase has thus gained relevance. Some countries include more or fe ...
in the UK.
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial bank, commercial and clearing (finance), clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Par ...
, which originated in the 17th century, is the second-oldest surviving UK bank after the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...
. In 2001, a wave of consolidations in the UK banking market led the former
Halifax Building Society
Halifax (previously known as Halifax Building Society and colloquially known as The Halifax) is a British banking brand operating as a trading division of Bank of Scotland, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group.
It is named ...
which originated in 1853to agree to a £10.8 billion merger with Bank of Scotland.
Trustee Savings Bank
The Trustee Savings Bank (TSB) was a British financial institution that operated between 1810 and 1995 when it was merged with Lloyds Bank (historic), Lloyds Bank. Trustee savings banks originated to accept savings deposits from those with mode ...
(TSB) can trace its roots back to the first savings bank founded by
Henry Duncan in
Ruthwell
Ruthwell is a village and parish on the Solway Firth between Dumfries and Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. In 2022 the combined population of Ruthwell and nearby Clarencefield was 400.
Thomas Randolph, Earl ...
,
Dumfriesshire
Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the hi ...
, in 1810. TSB itself was created in 1985 by an Act of Parliament that merged all the remaining savings banks in England & Wales as TSB Bank plc and in Scotland (except
Airdrie Savings Bank) as TSB Scotland plc.
Lloyds/TSB merger

In 1995, Lloyds Bank plc merged with
TSB Group plc, forming Lloyds TSB Group plc.
In 2000, the group acquired
Scottish Widows
Scottish Widows Limited is a life insurance, pensions and investment company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is a part of Lloyds Banking Group. The company has been providing financial services to the UK market since 1815 and its product range ...
, a mutual life-assurance company based in Edinburgh, in a deal worth £7 billion. This made the group the second-largest UK provider of life assurance and pensions after
Prudential. In September the same year, Lloyds TSB purchased Chartered Trust from
Standard Chartered Bank
Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational bank with operations in wealth management, Wholesale banking, corporate and investment banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retai ...
for £627 million to form Lloyds TSB Asset Finance Division, which provides motor, retail and personal finance in the United Kingdom under the trading name Black Horse.
Lloyds TSB continued to take part in the consolidation, making a takeover bid for
Abbey National
The Abbey National Building Society was formed in 1944 by the merger of the Abbey Road and the National building societies.
It was the first building society in the United Kingdom to Demutualisation, demutualise, doing so in July 1989. The ba ...
in 2001, which was later rejected by the
Competition Commission
The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...
. In October 2003, Lloyds TSB Group agreed on the sale of its subsidiary
NBNZ Holdings Limitedcomprising the Group's New Zealand banking and insurance operationsto
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, commonly known as ANZ Bank, is a multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is Austr ...
. In July 2004, Lloyds TSB Group announced the sale of its business in Argentina to
Banco Patagonia Sudameris S.A. and its business in Colombia to
Primer Banco del Istmo, S.A.
On 20 December 2005, Lloyds TSB announced that it had reached an agreement to sell its credit card business Goldfish to
Morgan Stanley Bank International Limited for £175 million. In 2007, Lloyds TSB announced that it had sold its
Abbey Life assurance division to
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
...
for £977 million.
Acquisition of HBOS
On 17 September 2008, the BBC reported that HBOS was in takeover talks with Lloyds TSB, in response to a precipitous drop in HBOS's share price. The talks concluded successfully that evening with a proposal to create a banking giant which would hold a third of UK mortgages. An announcement was made on 18 September 2008.
On 19 November 2008, the new acquisition and government preference share purchase was agreed by Lloyds TSB shareholders. HBOS shareholders overwhelming approved the deal on 12 December. Lloyds TSB Group changed its name to Lloyds Banking Group upon completion of the takeover on 19 January 2009.
On 12 February 2009,
Eric Daniels, the CEO of the Group, was questioned about the banking crisis during a session of the
Treasury Select Committee
The House of Commons Treasury Committee (often referred to as the Treasury Select Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The committee is responsible for examining and scrutinizing the ...
of the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
. One of the key issues concerned Lloyds' takeover of HBOS and the amount of
due diligence
Due diligence is the investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is normally expected to take before entering into an agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care.
Due diligence ...
carried out before the acquisition. Daniels said that a company would always like to do more due diligence on another company, but there are legal limits on how much is possible before an actual acquisition. Losses were slightly more than the £10 billion originally identified by the due diligence owing to
write-offs of property loans because of falling property prices and the lack of demand for it. The then-Chairman of Lloyds, Sir
Victor Blank, said in August 2009 that losses had been "at the worst end of expectations", and that the Lloyds board was surprised by the speed at which the losseswhich were caused by the unexpectedly sharp contraction of the world economy in late 2008 and early 2009happened.
This position was confirmed by Archie Kane, a senior Lloyds executive in Scotland, in evidence to the Scottish parliament's economy committee in December 2009.
On 13 February 2009, Lloyds Banking Group said that the losses at HBOS were greater than had been anticipated, at around £10 billion. The share price of Lloyds Banking Group fell 32% on the
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
, carrying other bank shares with it.
October 2008 to January 2009

On 13 October 2008, Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...
announced a government plan for the Treasury to invest £37 billion (, ) of new capital into major UK banksincluding
Royal Bank of Scotland Group
NatWest Group plc is a British banking and insurance holding company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The group operates a wide variety of banking brands offering personal and business banking, private banking, investment banking, insurance and ...
, Lloyds TSB and HBOSto avert a collapse of the financial sector.
Barclays
Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...
avoided taking a capital investment from the UK government by raising capital privately and HSBC moved capital to its UK business from its other businesses overseas.
It was later confirmed that Lloyds TSB would have been required by the
Financial Services Authority
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was a quasi-judicial body accountable for the regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom between 2001 and 2013. It was founded as the Securities and Investments Board (SIB) in 1985 ...
(FSA) to take additional capital from the government if it had not taken over HBOS. After the recapitalisations and Lloyds' acquisition of HBOS, the UK Government held a 43.4% stake in Lloyds Banking Group.
February to June 2009
In February 2009, after it became apparent that the recession would be deeper than originally anticipated, the FSA was instructed to "stress test" the banks against a severe economic downturn. The FSA stated that the assumptions underlying the stress test were not intended to be a forecast of what was likely to happen, but to simulate a near catastrophic economic scenario. These assumptions included:
* A peak-to-trough fall in UK
gross domestic product
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performanc ...
(GDP) of over 6%, with no growth until 2011 and returning to trend-rate growth in 2012;
* A rise in UK unemployment to just over 12%;
* A 50% peak-to-trough fall in UK house prices;
* A 60% peak-to-trough fall in UK commercial property prices.
The conclusion from this exercise was that Lloyds would need additional capital if such a scenario ever occurred. Because the wholesale funding markets were effectively closed at the time, in March 2009 Lloyds made a deal with the UK government consisting of two elements:
* Redemption of preference shares. The £4 billion of preference (non-voting) shares held by
UKFI were repaid on 8 June 2009 following the issue of new ordinary sharesthis avoided the payment of £480 million annual interest to the Treasury and allowed Lloyds to resume payment of dividends when profits allowed. These new ordinary shares were initially available to existing shareholders through an open offer at 38.43 pence that closed on 5 June 200987% were taken up. The remaining 13% were placed in the market on 8 June 2009 at 60 pence. This open offer and placing was underwritten by the Treasury; if none of these new ordinary shares had been bought by existing shareholders or the open market, the governmentas underwriters of the dealwould have bought them and their shareholding would have increased to a maximum of 65%. This did not happen; the government's holding remained at 43.4% and Lloyds became the first European bank to repay government "credit crunch" investment. Following the government's 43.4% participation in June's Open Offer, the average buying price of the government's total shareholding was 122.6 pence.
* Asset protection scheme. Lloyds agreed in principle to enter the government's asset protection scheme to insure it against potential future losses on previous loansprimarily on the old HBOS portfolio. The fee for this would have been paid for by the issue to the government of new 'B' (non-voting) shares, which could have increased the government holding to a maximum of c. 62%or higher if the government had bought all the ordinary shares issued to redeem the preference shares.
June 2009 to present

Lloyds impairments peaked in the first half of 2009; by mid-2009 the asset protection scheme increasingly looked like a poor deal for Lloyds. Following negotiations, the government confirmed on 3 November 2009 that Lloyds would not enter the schemealthough
RBS still would. Instead, Lloyds launched a rights issue to raise capital from existing shareholders; as an existing 43.4% shareholder the government chose to take part in this and thus maintained its shareholding at 43.4%. Following this, the National Audit Office calculated the government's average buying price for its entire stake in Lloyds to be about 74 pence.
It was announced in the government's pre-budget report on 9 December 2009 that the forecast for the total loss to taxpayers for all the bank bailouts had been reduced from £50 billion to £10 billionin part because of the restructuring of the government's asset protection scheme. The final part of the December 2009 capital raise involved issuing new shares to debt holders in February 2010. This diluted existing shareholdersincluding the UK Government, whose shareholding was reduced from 43.4% to around 41%.
The group sold its 70% stake in insurance company
Esure to Esure Group Holdings on 11 February 2010. The share was valued at around £185 million.
On 4 November 2012, it was reported that Lloyds was considering selling its 60% stake in St James's Place Wealth Management to raise around £1 billion. In April 2013, Lloyds sold its loss-making Spanish retail operationoriginally
Banco Halifax Hispaniaand the local investment management business in Spain to
Banco de Sabadell. Lloyds will receive a 1.8% stake in Sabadell worth about €84 million and an additional sum of up to €20 million over the next five years. In September 2013, it was reported that the UK government was planning to sell up to a quarter of its shares in Lloyds Banking Group. The government sold 6% of its shares on 17 September 2013 at 75p, raising £3.2 billion and reducing its stake to 32.7%. The UK government then sold a further 7.8% on 26 March 2014 at 75.5p raising a further £4.2bn and reducing its stake to 24.9%. A trading plan of incremental sales during 2015 reduced the publicly owned stake to below 10% by the end of October.
Sales resumed in November 2016, as the holding was reduced to 7.99%.
On 17 March 2017, the
British government
His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. confirmed its remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group had been sold.
In February 2025, Lloyds Banking Group nearly tripled the amount it is setting aside to cover the car finance mis-selling scandal to £1.2bn. Lloyds are one of the lenders who could potentially be forced to compensate consumers after a court ruling in October 2024 determined that paying a “secret” commission to car dealers who had arranged the loans without disclosing the sum and terms of that commission to borrowers was unlawful.
In early 2025, Lloyds Banking Group secured a £99 million contract to provide banking services for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), replacing Barclays after a decade.
Divestment
The UK government's purchase of a 43.4% stake in the group in 2009 was considered as state aid; under
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
competition laws, the group would be required to sell a portion of its business. The group's divestment plancodenamed "Verde"identified 632 branches which would be transferred to a new business. Customers with accounts held by the branches, and staff employed within them, would be transferred. The new business would be formed from some Lloyds TSB branches in England and Wales, all branches of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc and Cheltenham & Gloucester plc; these would operate under the TSB brand as
TSB Bank plc. The remainder of the Lloyds TSB business would be rebranded as Lloyds Bank.
Lloyds Banking Group reached a Heads of Terms agreement in July 2012 to sell the Verde branches to
The Co-operative Bank for £750 million. The final transfer of TSB Bank plc to the new owner was due to be completed by late 2013. In February 2013, it was reported that Lloyds Banking Group were considering a stock market flotation of the TSB business as an alternative, should the transfer not be completed. On 24 April 2013, The Co-operative Bank decided not to proceed with the acquisition because of the economic downturn and the tough regulatory environment imposed on banks. Lloyds Banking Group said that the rebranding to TSB Bank would still take place and that the new bank will be divested through an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
in 2014. TSB Bank began operations on 9 September 2013, under CEO
Paul Pester.
Lloyds Banking Group announced that 25% of TSB's shares would be floated on 24 June 2014; however, with the offer being 10 times oversubscribed, 35% of TSB's shares were sold at 260p on 20 June.
Banco Sabadell agreed to purchase TSB in March 2015, and completed the acquisition on 8 July 2015. The purchase meant Lloyds sold its final holding in TSB.
Divisions and subsidiaries
The business is divided into five divisions:
*Private equity
*Consumer lending and consumer relationships
*Business & commercial banking
*Corporate & institutional banking
*Insurance, pensions and investments
Senior leadership
''Refers to Chairmen and Chief Executives since 2009, when Lloyds Banking Group was formed.''
Current leadership
* ''Chairman:''
Robin Budenberg (since January 2021)
* ''Chief Executive:''
Charlie Nunn (since August 2021)
List of former chairmen
#
Sir Victor Blank (2009)
#
Sir Winfried Bischoff (2009–2014)
#
Lord Blackwell (2014–2020)
List of former chief executives
#
Eric Daniels (2009–2011)
#
Sir António Horta-Osório (2011–2021)
Sponsorships and responsible business programmes
Lloyds Banking Group is an active supporter of
disability rights
The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all disabled people.
It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advocates, around ...
and best practice; it is a Gold member of the Employers' Forum on Disability. In 2010, the group helped create and currently sponsors the
Royal Association for Disability Rights (RADAR) Radiate network, which aims to support and develop a talent pool of people with disabilities and health conditions, and to potentially act as a source of thinking for organisations on how 'disabled talent' is best spotted and developed.
In 2011, Lloyds Banking Group established the Lloyds Scholars Programme, a social mobility programme aimed at UK students, in partnership with nine leading UK universities. The Scholars Programme takes 15 students per university per year and consists of a £1000 per annum scholarship paid directly to the student to help with living costs, a Lloyds Banking Group mentor and two ten-week internships, paid at £18,000 pro rata.
The programme supports students throughout their university career and requires Scholars to complete 100 hours of volunteering in their local community, per year of their degree.
There are also restrictions on who can apply, which exclude medical and veterinary students, as well as anyone with a residual household income as defined by their student funding body of more than £25,000 per annum, since the programme is a social mobility initiative.
Awards and recognition

In July 2007, ''
Euromoney
''Euromoney'' is an English-language monthly magazine focused on business and finance. First published in 1969, it is the flagship production of Euromoney Institutional Investor plc.
History and profile
''Euromoney'' was first published in 19 ...
'' announced Lloyds TSB as the winners of its Awards for Excellence.
In June 2008, Lloyds TSB Group came top in the Race for Opportunity's (RfO) annual survey.
In May 2009, Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets was recognised as 'Bank of the Year' for the fifth year running at Real FD/ CBI FDs' Excellence Awards.
In October 2009's "What Investment" magazine awards, Halifax won Best Savings Account Provider and Halifax Share Dealing was also named Best Share Dealing Service.
In October 2009's "Consumer Money Awards", Halifax won Best First Time Mortgage Provider. Lloyds' brands were commended in several other categories, including Cheltenham & Gloucester for Best Remortgage Provider and Best High Street Mortgage Provider; Lloyds TSB for Best Current Account Provider, Best Student Account Provider and Best Customer Service Provider; and Halifax for Best ISA Provider and Best High Street Savings Provider.
In November 2009's "Your Mortgage Awards", Halifax won the award for Best Overall Mortgage Lender for the eighth year running, as well as the award for Best Large Loans Mortgage Lender. Birmingham Midshires was named Best Specialist and Buy-to-Let Mortgage Lender, and Lloyds TSB won the award for Best Overseas Mortgage Lender.
Controversies
Money laundering
A 2010 report by ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' described how
Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse Group AG (, ) was a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse was to be fully integrated into UBS. While the integration ...
, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, and other banks were involved in helping the
Alavi Foundation,
Bank Melli, the
Government of Iran
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (), known simply as ''Nezam'' (), is the ruling State (polity), state and current political system in Iran, in power since the Iranian Revolution and fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979.
Its Const ...
, and others circumvent US laws banning financial transactions with certain states. They did this by stripping information out of wire transfers, thereby concealing the source of funds. Lloyds Banking Group settled with the US government for . The US government's Manhattan District Attorney's Office was involved, although the case was merged with one at the federal US Department of Justice.
Tax avoidance
In 2009, a case was brought against Lloyds by
HM Revenue and Customs
His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (commonly HM Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, and formerly Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) is a department of the UK government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of stat ...
on grounds of
tax avoidance
Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdictions that facilitate reduced taxe ...
. Lloyds was accused of disguising loans to American companies as investments in order to reduce the tax liability on them.
Complaints via the Financial Ombudsman Service
Lloyds TSB received 9,952 complaints via the
Financial Ombudsman Service
The Financial Ombudsman Service is an ombudsman in the United Kingdom. It was established in 2000, and given statutory powers in 2001 by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, to help settle disputes between consumers and UK-based busi ...
in the last half of 2009. This, when added to the other brands of the Lloyds Banking Group, was twice the number of complaints received by Barclaysthe next-most-complained-about UK bank. The Financial Ombudsman Service upheld fewer complaints against Lloyds TSB than it did against Barclays.
Islamic Account
In 2014, Lloyds launched the 'Islamic Account', a
current account aimed at
Muslims
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
and which it stated was compliant with
Sharia law
Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, inta ...
– namely, the prohibition of credit or debit interest. Critics of the new policy stated that the account amounted to
religious discrimination
Religious discrimination is treating a person or group differently because of the particular religion they align with or were born into. This includes instances when adherents of different religions, denominations or non-religions are treate ...
, as users of the Sharia-compliant account would not incur
interest
In finance and economics, interest is payment from a debtor or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct f ...
if they went
overdrawn, in contrast with users of typical current accounts. The bank responded that the account was available to both Muslims and non-Muslims, and that comparisons of interest rates between its Islamic Account and traditional current accounts were "meaningless".
HBOS Reading fraud
Lloyds Banking Group has been criticised for failing to compensate, or even apologise to, victims of
fraud perpetrated by employees of HBOS.
LBG was accused of treating the whistle-blowers involved in the HBOS Reading fraud poorly. Customers Paul and Nikki Turner presented evidence of the fraud to the board but were ignored. Indeed, the bank tried to evict them from their home on twenty-two occasions. Sally Masterton was an accountant working for Lloyds who greatly assisted Thames Valley Police in their investigation of the fraud, codenamed Operation Hornet. She wrote a report on the fraud at the request of the bank, called Project Lord Turnbull. She subsequently left the bank and claimed for constructive dismissal.
Overdraft fees
In January 2019, the Group was criticized by the Chair of the
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee
The Business and Trade Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Business an ...
for changes to its overdraft fees policy.
Rachel Reeves MP said of the changes that "While
heymight be legal, they are not within the spirit of the FCA's recommendations" to scrap overdraft fees and replace them with a single interest rate and that they would "increase the charges for the vast majority of customers".
Lloyds Business Support Unit
A review conducted by
Thames Valley Police
Thames Valley Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley region, covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in South East England.
It is the largest non-metropolitan police force ...
indicated that fraud may have been committed at the Lloyds Business Support Unit based in Bristol. Lloyds Banking Group have denied this. There are more than two hundred alleged victims of the unit who have asked the police to investigate their claims.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{authority control
Banks established in 1765
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Financial services companies based in the City of London
Multinational companies based in the City of London
Companies in the FTSE 100 Index