Intermediaries arm will become Lloyds Intermediaries in 2027, with brokers gaining access to Premier account discounts by next week
Lloyds Banking Group has confirmed plans to phase out the Halifax brand, ending the 173-year-old name's presence on UK high streets.
New accounts will no longer open under the Halifax name, and the group will begin migrating existing accounts to Lloyds branding in the coming days. Signage will start coming down at 190 of the group's 531 branches from early 2027, though no branch closures are planned as part of the switch.
The move, first reported in May, has drawn criticism from long-standing customers and residents of Halifax, and follows an internal review of the group's branding approach.
Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland have operated as three separate brands within the group since January 2009, when the financial crisis and a series of poor commercial decisions left the combined Halifax-Bank of Scotland business in difficulty.
Under the changes, Lloyds will become the group's only brand in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from next year. Bank of Scotland will continue to serve customers north of the border. The group has confirmed that sort codes and account numbers will remain unchanged throughout the transition.
The retirement of the Halifax name removes one of the high street's longest-standing lenders. The business began as the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building Society in the mid-1800s, set up in response to housing shortages and overcrowding, and allowed members to earn interest on savings while borrowing to buy or build homes.
Intermediaries business to follow suit
Halifax Intermediaries will also be renamed, becoming Lloyds Intermediaries from early 2027 as part of the group's wider intermediary strategy. The group has said that systems, processes and log-in details used by brokers will not change, and that the same teams will continue to deliver services to existing broker relationships.
Brokers will see one change ahead of the rebrand. From 7 July, the Lloyds Premier Current Account mortgage discount — previously available only on direct Lloyds mortgages — will extend to Halifax mortgages arranged through intermediaries. The rebrand to Lloyds Intermediaries will also allow brokers to write product transfer business on existing Lloyds mortgage customers for the first time.
The group outlined a further set of commitments to brokers, with more detail expected next week. These include procurement fees reflecting the complexity of broker work, a named business development manager contact, a 24-hour turnaround on document reviews with escalation where needed, and continued investment in technology, data and broker-facing tools.
BM Solutions will also move to the Lloyds Intermediaries brand at a later date, though the group has not set a timeframe. Once complete, the change is expected to create the largest intermediary mortgage business in the UK, bringing all of the group's broker-originated mortgages under one brand.
"Brokers play a vital role in helping customers navigate some of life's most important financial decisions, and we are showing how important we see that partnership with today's announcement," said Esther Dijkstra (pictured right), managing director for intermediaries at Lloyds Banking Group.
"With no change to our BDMs or the support we provide, it is business as usual. We've listened to feedback and are making Lloyds Premier discounts available, and from 7 July brokers can access these on Halifax mortgages.
"In announcing the change to Lloyds Intermediaries from 2027, we are signalling our long-term commitment to the intermediary market, reinforcing our ambition to provide brokers with greater value, the opportunity to help even more customers through access to the Lloyds back book, a stronger proposition and the confidence of a partner committed to shared success."
Aaron Strutt, product director at mortgage broker Trinity Financial, described the disappearance of the Halifax brand as the end of an era, particularly as the lender had been founded as a building society and had existed since 1853.
"The bank has a great reputation especially in the mortgage world but it may well have been a bit outdated so I can understand why they are making the change to align it with Lloyds," he said.
"This will take some time to digest for many people because the Halifax name has played such a big part in the banking world for such a long time. So many of the well-known banks and building societies have either been bought by the big lenders or gone out of business in recent years."
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