Metropol

Ha, thanks Mr Harvey - have never been far away, although genuinely alarmed to learn the fact I last said something two and a half years ago... not sure where that time went.

Pete wrote:Bank of Scotland is essentially now the Scottish subsidiary of Lloyds Bank. All references to Halifax have been removed from the branches with full Bank of Scotland (in the sans-serif new Lloyds font) branding and blue versions of the Lloyds interiors.

You know, I don't think I'd noticed that the Bank of Scotland logo was the same font as the Lloyds one. It can also be seen on the parent group's logo:


and also on some branches, like this one in Westfield Stratford, opened in September 2011:


I'll have to pop back and see how they're preparing for the rebrand - it's clearly imminent.

Those of you who received a booklet may have noticed the vaguely interesting fact that the new TSB will be using the Lloyds TSB Scotland banking licence.

thegeek wrote:

Pete wrote: I'll have to pop back and see how they're preparing for the rebrand - it's clearly imminent.

I'd imagine those are branches that will need to change the least, as they were clearly designed with a view to becoming Lloyds Bank in the near future. It's interesting all the 'Lloyds TSB' temporary signs use the old font/logo, despite the new one being used since at least 2011 the same with the website and TV advertisements.

wells wrote:

thegeek wrote:

Pete wrote: I'll have to pop back and see how they're preparing for the rebrand - it's clearly imminent.

I'd imagine those are branches that will need to change the least, as they were clearly designed with a view to becoming Lloyds Bank in the near future. It's interesting all the 'Lloyds TSB' temporary signs use the old font/logo, despite the new one being used since at least 2011 the same with the website and TV advertisements.

Yeah; I thought it was weird that they introduced the new logo to new stores 18-24 months ago, and yet nowhere else.

The town I work in, I noticed today that their Lloyds TSB has had a big refit and is very green with again a temp white lloyds tsb sign on the front, even the pay point I used was the new green with a few bits of the old branding on it to cover it up.

Yes, that's what seems to be happening to all soon-to-be Lloyds Banks.

wells wrote:

thegeek wrote:

Pete wrote: I'll have to pop back and see how they're preparing for the rebrand - it's clearly imminent.

I'd imagine those are branches that will need to change the least, as they were clearly designed with a view to becoming Lloyds Bank in the near future. It's interesting all the 'Lloyds TSB' temporary signs use the old font/logo, despite the new one being used since at least 2011 the same with the website and TV advertisements.

I think you're on to something there - I had a look the other day, and there's a slightly wider gap than you might otherwise expect between the 'TSB' and the black horse on the sign.

I've ended up quite confused by all this, and despite reading though the thread am still not quite sure what's changing to what. Lloyds TSB is changing (back) to Lloyds, and TSB will be separate and eventually spun off? And then something's happening with Bank of Scotland and Halifax too, with Halifax leaving Scotland? Could someone sum up what's going on?

HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland) had already closed or rebranded the Halifax branches in Scotland as Bank of Scotland. (Bank of Scotland branches in England were also closed). Both Halifax and Bank of Scotland offered and serviced Halifax (personal) products and Bank of Scotland (business) products.

Lloyds took over HBOS in 2008, and since then has stopped the inter-availability of products between HBOS brands. I presume people with Halifax accounts at BoS branches have been converted to a BoS product? It seems that Lloyds have been refurbishing BoS branches in a scheme similar to the Stratford Lloyds example, but in blue, perhaps a sign that they intend to move it to offering Lloyds products in Scotland?

As a result of the merger and the subsequent bailout, the EU now requires that Lloyds sell off a good number of branches. They've chosen to do this by selling off their Lloyds TSB branches in Scotland, Cheltenham & Gloucester and a good number of Lloyds TSB branches in England & Wales, which will rebrand as TSB in readiness for a sale/spin-off in the coming months. The remaining Lloyds TSB branches will become Lloyds Bank.

The big question to me is, what happens to Halifax?

The HBOS branches were always a bit nuts, and the products weren't so neatly delineated on business/personal lines. Going into the merger, I had BoS current and savings accounts. Post merger, when I got an ISA, this was a Halifax product (and was a regression, with passbooks instead of a card thing), but all my successive current accounts/credit cards have been BoS products. My ISA is still a Halifax product - I get random bumf in the post trying to sell me things on the back of it which are all Halifax branded, but everything else is strictly BoS. It's very odd.

There was another strange spell a year or two ago where the HBOS and Lloyds bits of LBG presumably began merging infrastructure. For a few months BoS regressed, again, with customers having to fill in withdrawal/deposit slips in the queue. I was told this was/is a Lloyds thing - is that even true? Everybody obviously hated the faff, and I kept getting told it was a stopgap, but didn't really understand if the aim was for Lloyds to adopt the (superior?) HBOS backend. Over the same period, BoS branches have been tarted up in that sort-of Lloyds style, but there's a lot of random bits of brand legacy hanging over it all. I'm tempted to not touch my ISA to see for how long I can hang on to a sweet reminder of pointless Halifaxness.

I really don't understand what's going on with the Lloyds back-end situation. I was under the impression that the HBOS system *was* superior, but then when the Co-op takeover of TSB was announced there was all sorts of faff around the IT infrastructure remaining with Lloyds and being rented from them (which I believe is what TSB will do initially?) - why don't Lloyds flog their system with the TSB spin off and move the customers they'll retain to the HBOS system?

I'm probably oversimplifying massively.

I'm not sure if any Halifax stuff has moved over to Lloyds infrastructure. The only change I've noticed is that Halifax seem to have shed any reference to Roll Numbers sometime in the last 2 or 3 years.