Lloyds Bank plc[3][4] 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.[5]
Established in Birmingham in 1765, Lloyds Bank expanded considerably during the 19th and 20th centuries, acquiring several smaller banks along the way. It merged with the Trustee Savings Bank in 1995 and operated as Lloyds TSB Bank plc from 1999 to 2013. In January 2009, it became a key subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group following the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB Group.[6] The bank's operational headquarters are in London, England, with additional offices in Wales and Scotland, and it also manages office complexes, brand headquarters, and data centres in Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Halifax, and Wolverhampton.
History
Origins
The origins of Lloyds Bank date from 1765, when button maker John Taylor and Quaker iron producer and dealer Sampson Lloyd set up a private banking business in Dale End, Birmingham. The first branch office opened in Oldbury, some six miles (10 km) west of Birmingham, in 1864.[7]
The association with the Taylor family ended in 1852 and, in 1865, Lloyds & Co. converted into a joint-stock company known as Lloyds Banking Company Ltd. The first report of the company in 1865 stated:"LLOYDS BANKING COMPANY LIMITED – Authorized Capital £2,000,000. FOUNDED ON The Private Banks of Messrs. Lloyds & Co. and Messrs. Moilliet and Sons, with-which have subsequently been amalgamated with the Banks of Messrs. P. H. Williams, Wednesbury, and Messrs.Stevenson, Salt, & Co., Stafford and Lichfield. [They had an office at 20 Lombard St., London] Your Directors have the satisfaction to report that they have concluded an agreement with the well-known and old-established firm of Messrs. Stevenson, Salt & Company for the amalgamation with this Company of their Banking Business at Stafford, Lichfield, Rugeley, and Eccleshall, and that this agreement has had the unanimous approval of the Extraordinary General Meeting held on 31st January last. It will be again submitted to you for final confirmation after the close of the Ordinary General Meeting. TIMOTHY KENRICK, Chairman. BIRMINGHAM, 9th February 1866"Two sons of the original partners followed in their footsteps by joining the established merchant bank Barnett, Hoares & Co. which later became Barnetts, Hoares, Hanbury, and Lloyd— based in Lombard Street, London. Eventually, this became absorbed into the original Lloyds Banking Company, which became Lloyds, Barnetts, and Bosanquets Bank Ltd. in 1884.
Services
The bank offers a full range of banking and financial services through a network of 447 branches in England and Wales.[52] Branches in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are operated by Lloyds Bank International Limited, while Lloyds Bank (Gibraltar) Limited operates in Gibraltar; both are wholly owned subsidiaries and trade under the Lloyds Bank brand.[53] Lloyds Bank is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.[54] It is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, UK Payments Administration, the British Bankers' Association and subscribes to the Lending Code.[55] The bank uses the following series of sort codes:—
Overseas operations
The bank's overseas expansion began in 1911 and, by 1985, it had banking and representative offices in 45 countries, from Argentina to the United States of America.
Lloyds Bank International was absorbed into the main business of Lloyds Bank in 1986. Since 2010, the name has been used to refer to the bank's offshore banking operations.
Senior leadership
The following list indicates the chairmen and chief executives from the incorporation of Lloyds Banking Corporation in 1865 and the creation of the chief executive position in 1945. The chairman and chief executive of Lloyds Bank is held ex-officio by the chairman and chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group.[57]
List of chairmen
- 1) Timothy Kenrick (1865–1868)
- 2) Sampson Samuel Lloyd (1868–1886)
- 3) Thomas Salt (1886–1898)
- 4) John Spencer Philips (1898–1909)
- 5) Sir Richard Vassar-Smith (1909–1922)
- 6) Lord Waddington (1922–1945)
- 7) Lord Balfour of Burleigh (1945–1954)
Controversies
Payment protection insurance
In November 2005 an investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) highlighted a lack of compliance controls surrounding payment protection insurance (PPI). A second investigation in October 2006 identified further evidence of poor compliance and major PPI providers including Lloyds were fined for not treating customers fairly. In January 2011 a High Court case began which in the following April ruled against the banks, on 5 May 2011 Lloyds withdrew from the legal challenge. In 2012, Lloyds announced that they had set aside £3.6 billion to cover the cost of compensating customers who were mis-sold PPI.[59]
In March 2014 it was reported that Lloyds had been reducing the compensation they offered by using a regulatory provision called "alternative redress" to assume that customers wrongly sold single-premium PPI policies would have bought a cheaper, regular premium PPI policy instead.[60]
In June 2015 the Lloyds Banking Group was fined £117m for mishandling payment protection insurance claims including many claims being "unfairly rejected".[61]
See also
- Lloyds Bank Limited v Bundy
- Lloyds Bank plc v Rosset
- Lloyds Bank plc v Independent Insurance Co Ltd
External links
References
- Directors lloydsbankinggroup.com^
- Lloyds Bank Annual Report, 2016^
- LLOYDS BANK PLC overview – Find and update company information – GOV.UK Companies House, 1865-04-20, retrieved 2024-01-22^