Lloyds Bank

Lloyds Bank Plc was a British commercial bank which operated in England and Wales (and to a much lesser extent Scotland) from 1833 until its merger into Lloyds TSB in 1995. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies.

History

The origins of Lloyds Bank date from 1765, when button maker, John Taylor and iron producer and dealer, Sampson Lloyd II set up a private banking business in Dale End, Birmingham. The first branch of Taylors and Lloyds opened in Oldbury, some six miles (10 km) west of Birmingham, in 1864. The Oldbury branch remained in use for 140 years and the building still exists today, although it is now a Subway restaurant. The black horse device dates from 1677 when Humphrey Stockes adopted it as sign for his shop. Stokes was a goldsmith and "keeper of the running cashes," an early term for banker. When Lloyds Bank took over the site in 1884, it retained the black horse as its symbol. [ [http://www.lloydstsb.com/about_ltsb/lloyds_bank.asp Lloyds Bank] About Lloyds TSB (retrieved 11 October 2008)]

In 1972, Lloyds Bank was a founder member of the Joint Credit Card Company (with National Westminster Bank, Midland Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland) which launched the Access credit card (now MasterCard) and in the same year it introduced "Cashpoint", the first online cash machine to use plastic cards with a magnetic stripe. [ [http://www.apacs.org.uk/payment_options/documents/Plastic%20Cards%20_%20History%20of%20Plastic%20Cards%20in%20the%20UK%20v1.pdf History of Plastic Cards] The Association for Payment Clearing Services, 9 January 2006]

National Bank of New Zealand

Two sons of the original partners followed in their footsteps by establishing a bank—Barnetts Hoares Hanbury and Lloyd—in Lombard Street, London. Eventually, this became absorbed into the original Lloyds Banking Company. In 1872, the National Bank of New Zealand was founded in London as an overseas bank and shared many directors with Lloyds Bank. In 1919, Lloyds Bank acquired a small interest in the National Bank and in 1966, purchased it outright. In 1978, the National Bank moved its head office from London to Wellington. [ [http://www.anznational.co.nz/brands/thenationalbank.aspx National Bank of New Zealand] About ANZ National (retrieved 11 October 2008)]

Through a series of mergers, including the Wilts. and Dorset Bank in 1914 and the Capital and Counties Bank in 1918, Lloyds emerged to become one of the big four clearing banks in the United Kingdom. By 1923, Lloyds Bank Limited had made some 50 takeovers, one of which was the last private firm to issue its own banknotes—Fox, Fowler and Company of Wellington, Somerset. Today, the Bank of England has a monopoly of banknote issue in England and Wales. [ [http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/history.htm A brief history of banknotes] Bank of England (retrieved 11 October 2008)] 1911 saw the formation of Lloyds Bank (France) when Lloyds Bank acquired Armstrong and Co., based in Paris and Le Havre. From 1917 it was run jointly as Lloyds and National Provincial Bank. In 1955, Lloyds Bank bought full ownership and it became Lloyds Bank (Foreign) and later Lloyds Bank Europe.

Bank of London and South America

A strong connection with South America began in 1918 with the acquisition of the London and River Plate Bank. The later merger with the London and Brazilian Bank resulted in the Bank of London and South America. In 1971, Lloyds Bank bought the controlling interest in BOLSA and merged it with Lloyds Bank Europe to form Lloyds and Bolsa International Bank. This became Lloyds Bank International in 1974 and was merged into Lloyds Bank in 1986.

In 1988, the Bank merged five of its businesses with the Abbey Life Insurance Company to create Lloyds Abbey Life. By the early 1990s, Lloyds Bank had offices in 30 countries, from Argentina to the United States of America. An already commanding presence as the National Bank of New Zealand was further strengthened in 1994 by the takeover of the Rural Bank, the former New Zealand government owned bank, from Fletcher Challenge, making it the leading provider of agricultural finance in the former colony.

Trustee Savings Bank

In 1995, the demutualised Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society joined the Lloyds Bank Group, giving it a large stake in the UK mortgage lending market. [ [http://www.cheltglos.co.uk/about-candg.html About C&G] Cheltenham and Gloucester (retrieved 11 October 2008)] Later the same year, Lloyds Bank Group merged with the Trustee Savings Bank (TSB Group) to form Lloyds TSB Group Plc, at that point the largest bank in the UK by market share and the second-largest (to Midland Bank, now HSBC) by market capitalisation. The TSB had been founded by the Revd. Henry Duncan of Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire in 1810, but only incorporated under the Companies Act in 1985. Lloyds' three Scottish branches were absorbed into TSB Scotland, as Lloyds TSB Scotland, a separate subsidiary to Lloyds TSB Bank in England and Wales. TSB Northern Ireland had already been sold to Allied Irish Banks in 1991, becoming First Trust Bank. While First Trust Bank inherited the right of AIB to issue its own banknotes, savings banks never had this right in either Northern Ireland or Scotland. [ [http://www.lloydstsb.com/about_ltsb/tsb.asp Trustee Savings Bank] About Lloyds TSB (retrieved 11 October 2008)] Lloyds Abbey Life became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lloyds TSB Group in 1996 and was closed to new business in 2000.

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