The TSB & Lloyds Bank relaunch news and information board

[Three Lefts Do]

Seemingly, for non-town/city centre branches the notion of a firm “relaunch date” is somewhat non-existent.

In Cowley (southeast Oxford), the Cheltenham & Gloucester had the temporary “C&G” signage (with the obviously-“TSB”-ready layout) in the weeks prior to 9th Sept, but didn’t make the final name change until at least a few days late.

The LTSB directly opposite it, no changes whatsoever (temporary or otherwise) have occurred to the long-standing LTSB exterior signage and ATM surrounds at all in recent weeks, and remain unchanged even five/six days after the supposed 23rd Sept relaunch. Only the in-branch window posters (“Introducing Lloyds Bank” etc) appeared on launch day, and remain the only indication of what the branch is to become. Shambolic.

Not really. There's probably simply an issue regarding planning consent for new signage (perhaps it's a listed building).

For a lot of other yet-to-fully-rebrand branches, I would indeed have considered either or both of the possible hurdles that you suggest.

However, both the C&G/TSB branch and the LTSB/Lloyds branch that I refer to are in essentially identical shop spaces inside the same ugly 1960s-built shopping mall building. Hence my bemusement.

That's not possible, as C&G no longer exists.

I'm not sure whether it's as simple as that. I think it may be a bit like what happened to Bradford & Bingley.

I think it's only something like the "deposits & branch network" side of C&G that has become part of the new TSB, a bit like how only similar parts of B&B went into Abbey/Santander ownership. Meanwhile the "mortgages & savings" side remains as an ongoing C&G business, a bit like the remaining B&B that is currently still in HM Treasury ownership.

That said, I also thought that "C&G Mortgages" were already little more than a "trading name" (or something) for what are effectively LTSB/now-Lloyds mortgages? In which case, C&G indeed doesn't really exist any more. It's all very confuddling. I wonder whether even Lloyds Banking Group themselves actually understand what they've done...

[WillPS]

It's not like that. http://www.cheltglos.co.uk/mortgages/how-to-apply/ - as you can see, they're being offered exclusively through Lloyds Bank. If you go in to Santander with a question about a Bradford & Bingley mortgage, you'll likely be given a phone to call them and/or a sales spiel to bring your mortgage over to Santander (and, if my experience is anything to go by, a sales spiel for their 1-2-3 current account and credit card).

C&G is now/will become a mortgage brand as Woolwich did, the only difference being the savings accounts have been offloaded on to TSB.

With regards to the 1960s shopping centre; perhaps there are arbitrary procedures for that particular building? I honestly don't know, but what's clear is that which it seems as though it was treated as imperative that all TSB branches be rebranded by this month(with temporary signage as an interim), it has not been at all the same for Lloyds. Presumably that's because they had to get the TSB ones done so they could legally separate them; whereas Lloyds Bank is merely a rebranded continuation of Lloyds TSB in legal terms.

[Martin Phillp]

The East Dulwich Lloyds Bank is finally having the new signs fitted today with a black horse logo above the entrance.

[thegeek]

What's the bet that the recently revamped branches like the one below, which feature the uppercase LLOYDS TSB logo and were presumably set up ready for 'TSB' to be simply swapped with 'BANK', will end up inconsistent from the off:

Eastfield finally got changed in the last week:


I particularly like what they've done with the Cashpoints:

[JAS84]

Green paint? Surely they could've covered the name up with a sticker with the new name on it? Would've been much smarter.

[WillPS]

I would hazard a guess that's not intended as final. Would probably have been better doing nothing though!

I note those ghastly CGI deformities still dominate the entrance too...

[rdobbie]

Has anyone yet come across an example of a new TSB that was originally a Lloyds for many decades, complete with Lloyds branding that is best described as an architectural feature (or "hardwired branding" as I imagine some ponce in the industry might call it)? If so, how has it been dealt with?

I've seen a very old-looking former Lloyds which is now a TSB, and it's thrown up some problems for them. There's some ancient looking original gold leaf lettering saying "Lloyds Bank" on a window above the door, and a large ornate engraving of the black horse on the outside night safe. The solution - temporary I'm sure - has been to cover the offending items with strips of grey gaffer tape.

TSB will rightly be decried as vandals if they permanently remove these features, and they might even form part of the building's listed status. It will be interesting to see what they do about it in the long term.

I've seen a couple of Morrisons stores with large engraved plaques on prominent display by the front door that say "This Safeway store was opened by..." and they obviously took the decision to leave them untouched as they're an intrinsic part of the building rather than just signage.

But with TSB it's not going to be that simple to leave the Lloyds name/horse on display, as the brand lives on as a rival and not a mere relic of history. What to do?

[ph2o]

What's the bet that the recently revamped branches like the one below, which feature the uppercase LLOYDS TSB logo and were presumably set up ready for 'TSB' to be simply swapped with 'BANK', will end up inconsistent from the off:

Eastfield finally got changed in the last week:


I particularly like what they've done with the Cashpoints:

If you look closely, you'll notice the previous all caps signage is actually very different to the new Lloyds logo. The 'Y' in particular looks very different. So by just painting green over the TSB sign means it has still kept the old logo with only the main signage being changed. It's a bit of a mess really.

[WillPS]

The form of the Y has changed and the arc of the A now droops slightly to make the brand friendlier for consumers.

The original form remains in the corporate logo:

[JAS84]

Has anyone yet come across an example of a new TSB that was originally a Lloyds for many decades, complete with Lloyds branding that is best described as an architectural feature (or "hardwired branding" as I imagine some ponce in the industry might call it)? If so, how has it been dealt with?

I've seen a very old-looking former Lloyds which is now a TSB, and it's thrown up some problems for them. There's some ancient looking original gold leaf lettering saying "Lloyds Bank" on a window above the door, and a large ornate engraving of the black horse on the outside night safe. The solution - temporary I'm sure - has been to cover the offending items with strips of grey gaffer tape.

TSB will rightly be decried as vandals if they permanently remove these features, and they might even form part of the building's listed status. It will be interesting to see what they do about it in the long term.

I've seen a couple of Morrisons stores with large engraved plaques on prominent display by the front door that say "This Safeway store was opened by..." and they obviously took the decision to leave them untouched as they're an intrinsic part of the building rather than just signage.

But with TSB it's not going to be that simple to leave the Lloyds name/horse on display, as the brand lives on as a rival and not a mere relic of history. What to do?

Here in Hull there's a Lloyds that pre-merger was a TSB. It has a clock on an exterior wall, which has blue hour notches! Blue of course was TSB's colour. Fine when it was Lloyds TSB as they used both colours, but as the demerged Lloyds only uses green, it now looks out of place. At least there's no Hull Savings Bank (the original occupants) or TSB branding anywhere in sight. There's also a coffee shop nearby which used to be Yorkshire Bank, and that building has Yorkshire Penny Bank engraved in the stonework. And there's a Heron Frozen Foods shop, previously a Sainsbury's Local, which has a WJ monogram on a mosaic at the entrance. WJ for William Jackson, as it was originally a Jacksons store prior to Sainsbury's buying that chain. There must be hundreds, even thousands, of examples of shops displaying previous occupants' brands due to either listed status or actually being built into the building.

[rdobbie]

There must be hundreds, even thousands, of examples of shops displaying previous occupants' brands due to either listed status or actually being built into the building.

True, but in your examples, and in other cases where I've seen old branding embedded into the architecture, the old brand is either defunct or has been acquired by the new occupant so poses no threat. Alternatively the old brand isn't in the same line of business as the current occupant (like your example of a coffee shop in a former Yorkshire Bank).

I'm not aware of any cases where the old branding is unremovable from the building and continues to represent a live brand which is also a direct rival of the new occupant. Like I said, I think TSB are still scratching their heads about what to do. Removing Lloyds insignias could mean desecrating a listed building, but leaving them there is a corporate nightmare, and on a practical level could be confusing to elderly customers.

I wonder if issues like this were ever taken into account when the Lloyds TSB estate was carved up between the two new brands? It would have made sense to respect the history of each branch, not only to avoid the abovementioned branding problems, but to provide continuity to the many older customers who banked with either Lloyds or TSB pre-merger and now find themselves unable to use the branch they originally chose to open their account with.