Lloyds Banking Group is set to ditch its Halifax brand in a move that will end the retail bank’s 173-year run on the high street.

The FTSE 100 titan – whose subsidiaries also include Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows – said on Wednesday it would rebrand Halifax under the central moniker of Lloyds.

Lloyds argued the move would simplify how it serves customers with one main consumer banking unit.

“There are no changes to previously announced plans for branches, and there are no role reductions as part of today’s announcement,” Jas Singh, Lloyds’ chief executive of consumer relations said. 

The bank will begin the removal of Halifax signs from its 190 branches in early 2027. It will leave Lloyds as the group’s sole brand in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from next year.

Lloyds was founded in Birmingham in 1765, whilst Halifax gets its namesake from the West Yorkshire town where it was founded in 1852 as a building society. 

Halifax dropped its mutual status in 1997 when it listed on the London Stock Exchange but stopped trading four years later after a merger with Bank of Scotland to form HBOS.

Lloyds rescued HBOS in 2009 during the financial crisis, taking the firm’s brands under its umbrella.

High street braces for more banking shake-ups

The bank said it was still committed to its role in the town of Halifax, pointing to a recent £116m investment in its Trinity Road office in Halifax town centre. Some 3000 Lloyds employees are based in the town.

The move comes amid a wider shake-up for the banking industry on the high street.

Santander is said to be mulling plans to axe TSB from the high street following its near £3bn blockbuster takeover last year.

The move would end TSB’s 215 year run on Britain’s high street. The deal, which was announced last July, added TSB’s five million customers, £34bn in mortgages and £35bn in deposits to its portfolio.

Other major consolidation moves in the last few years have included Barclays’ £600m takeover of Tesco’s banking arm last year, which allowed it to return £700m to shareholders through an incremental share buyback. HSBC also renewed its partnership with M&S banking arm in 2024, which allows the grocer to leverage its credit offering.