TSB will offer current accounts, savings, mortgages, insurance products and personal loans. The bank will operate from 631 branches across England, Scotland and Wales, has four and a half million customers and over 8,500 staff.
The new bank launched today and has 4.6m customers and more than £20bn of loans and customer deposits on its books. TSB said it would focus on ‘local banking’ and supporting communities across UK.
There appeared to be early teething problems as both the TSB and Lloyds Bank websites were down for an extended period. Other Lloyds Banking Group brands Bank of Scotland, BM Solutions and Halifax remained unaffected.
TSB will remain as part of Lloyds Banking Group until its sale and a statement from Lloyds Banking Group said it is prepared to float the new bank as a separate entity in 2014. However, newspaper reports have suggested the group is in talks with the Treasury over extending the deadline for its sale.
Lloyds Banking Group was ordered to divest part of its business by the European Commission in 2009 after it received financial support from the UK government. The branches and customers which make up the TSB portfolio were due to be bought by the Co-operative Bank until its own financial issues derailed the deal.
The remaining 1,300 former Lloyds TSB branches will now come under the Lloyds Bank brand.
Paul Pester, TSB’s chief executive, said: “TSB bucks the trend in banking. We’ve gone back to the future by bringing back local banking to UK high streets supported by 21st Century technology.
“And let’s not forget where we have come from. The TSB movement was originally created over 200 years ago when the Reverend Henry Duncan established the first Savings Bank in Ruthwell, Scotland. Its sole purpose then was to serve the local people in the community. This is exactly what we’re doing again today as we bring the new TSB bank back to over 600 communities across the UK to fuel their local economies – and nothing else.”
