Lloyds’ chief pledges to revitalise Halifax brand despite jobs axe

Mr Horta-Osorio, who visited various branches in Halifax and attended an internal meeting with regional directors in Leeds, said: “The Halifax brand is, in my opinion, fantastic and we want to revitalise the brand based on its strength. We want to lever on its tradition which has been very successful.”

His visit comes a week after Lloyds announced plans to axe 15,000 posts by 2014 with around half of the jobs to go through natural wastage.

Mr Horta-Osorio said he regretted the job losses, but pledged to revitalise the Halifax brand while creating a more “agile” organisation.

The 15,000 roles will bring total job losses at the 41 per cent state-owned bank to almost 45,000 since it was formed in 2009 when Lloyds TSB and HBOS merged.

A Lloyds spokesman said: “We have significant operations in Leeds, Sheffield and Halifax. Yorkshire is one of the group’s heartlands and we are committed to the region.”

Halifax will be at the heart of Lloyds’ future growth strategy, with plans to revitalise the iconic Yorkshire bank with a major advertising campaign in September and the launch of a number of new products.

Mr Horta-Osorio has pledged a return to Halifax’s heritage and a drive to turn it into a serious contender to the “Big Four” current account providers.

He believes the Halifax brand became lost following the takeover by Lloyds in early 2009.