It’s one of the most recognisable high street brands, with origins back to the 19th century, but soon the name Halifax will disappear.
Lloyds Banking Group confirmed the long-awaited decision this week, saying that it would stop opening new Halifax accounts and begin a rebrand of its retail operations.
It said that Lloyds would become its lead brand in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but there would be no changes to Bank of Scotland, which would remain exclusively for Scottish customers.
“As Halifax changes to Lloyds, our Halifax customers will keep everything they know and love today – the same fantastic app design, the same friendly faces in our branches – even the same sort code and account number,” said Jas Singh, CEO of Consumer Relations.
“But as Lloyds customers, they’ll get the best innovation and experiences we offer.”
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It brings to a close almost 200 years of the Halifax brand and that hasn’t gone down so well in the West Yorkshire town which gave the organisation its name.
Lloyds said it remained “committed” to the region, where 3,000 of its staff are based and that it had recently made a £116m investment in the Trinity Road office.
The origins of the Halifax brand date back to the Industrial Revolution. As people flocked to manufacturing centres, like those in West Yorkshire, authorities were faced with housing shortage and overcrowding.
The solution, was to create Building Societies, one of the first, was the Halifax Permanent Building Society in 1852.
A loan and investment society so workers could save, get interest, or borrow for housing.
The first person to get a Halifax mortgage borrowed £121 to buy land in St John’s Lane – coincidentally, now the site of the Halifax Head Office.
During the turn of the 20th century, Halifax became a national brand and through a takeover of a rival in 1928, the Halifax Building Society had assets of £47m, becoming the largest institution of its kind, anywhere in the world.
In 1997, Halifax members voted to convert the operation into a PLC and on 2nd June, the name “Halifax Building Society” ceased to exist.
The share flotation of the rebranded, Halifax was one of the largest ever seen in the UK, with 7.5m new shareholders created.
In 2001, it merged with Bank of Scotland, to form HBOS and turned the “big four” banking groups into the “big five.”
It was three quarters of the size of Barclays and RBS.
However, by 2008, a series of poor business decisions put the business at risk of total collapse. That’s where Lloyds Banking Group stepped in, through a government brokered deal, including £20bn in taxpayer money.
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The group said today that there would be no immediate changes for customer accounts and benefits.
It’s not been revealed what impact this will have on the agencies currently servicing the Halifax brand.
