Pledge to make Halifax big player again

The decision comes 122 days after the arrival of new Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio, who 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.

“When I arrived in the UK in 2006, Halifax was the best brand in terms of retail. I really thought Halifax was doing a fantastic job,” he said.

But he believes the Halifax brand became lost following the takeover by Lloyds in early 2009 as management was so focused on the integration of Lloyds and HBOS.

He is now committed to return the brand to its traditional roots.

“Halifax has always been more irreverent, more attitude based and more transparent. We want to revitalise that tradition,” he added.

“The heritage of Halifax is fantastic, we want to revitalise it on its strengths.”

His aim is to get Halifax to compete head on with building society Nationwide and his former employer Santander, which bought a number of former building societies including Bradford & Bingley and Abbey.

Halifax will also be pitched against Lloyds and Mr Horta-Osorio said this is important to stop the overall banking group becoming complacent.

“Halifax is going to fight head on with Nationwide, Santander and Lloyds and the best one will win,” he said.

As part of the Halifax relaunch, the bank’s 650 branches will start opening on Saturdays to improve customer relations. At the same time there will be a drive to increase the number of on-line customers to reduce costs.

Mr Horta-Osorio refused to be drawn on the new advertising strategy for Halifax, but said the group had a number of ideas. Previous ad campaigns, including the one featuring real Halifax workers such as Howard, became outdated and the bank’s branding has lost its way in recent years.

Mr Horta-Osorio, who will visit Leeds and Halifax next week, said he has been impressed by the attitude of Halifax staff.

“Halifax retains its traditional characteristics. I’ve been very impressed with Halifax’s approach to customers.”

Lloyds’ plan to axe 15,000 jobs and halve its international presence is part of its plans to save £1.5bn a year by 2014.

The aim is to put the bank on a profitable footing so taxpayers can get their money back.

Lloyds was landed with billions of pounds of losses after it bought troubled rival HBOS at the height of the credit crisis, a deal brokered by the then Labour Government.

Its losses led to it being bailed out along with Royal Bank of Scotland and the taxpayer ended up with a stake of 41 per cent in Lloyds and 83 per cent in RBS.

As payback for the bail-out, European regulators have ordered Lloyds to sell 632 branches, although the Independent Commission on Banking may make it sell more to increase competition.

Lloyds said it is on track to find a buyer for the branches by the end of this year. Virgin Money, new bank venture NBNK and Yorkshire Bank’s parent company National Australia Bank are seen as possible bidders.

The job losses are part of Mr Horta-Osorio’s plans to cut through middle management and simplify the bank.

His plans met with shareholder approval and the group’s shares closed up nearly 10 per cent, a rise of 4.3p to 49p.

“We have to do this,” said Mr Horta-Osorio. “The bank has lost money and is losing money as you saw in the first quarter and we have to get this bank back on its feet to support the UK economy and to get it profitable in order to pay taxpayers’ money back.”

The latest job cuts will add to the 27,000 job losses already announced since the 2008 financial crisis. Lloyds employs 103,000 staff.

The cost of the redundancy programme will be £2.3bn, but the savings generated will allow the bank to invest an extra £2bn in UK retail banking.

Mr Horta-Osorio refused to say how much of the £2bn will be ploughed back into Halifax.

As part of the bank’s cost cutting strategy Lloyds’ international presence will be cut from 30 countries to less than 15 to allow the group to focus on the UK market.

Lloyds’ business outside the UK includes operations in Holland, Germany, Spain, north and south America and Asia.

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