Lloyds TSB Group plc (lse: LLOY, nyse: LYG) is a leading British financial institution with its Group head office in London and its registered office Edinburgh, Scotland and operations that span the globe including the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Its individual business units provide an extensive range of financial products and services, both in the United Kingdom and overseas. It was formed in 1995 by the merger of Lloyds Bank and the Trustee Savings Bank (TSB). The Group's head office is 25 Gresham Street, London with its Registered address at Henry Duncan House, 120 George St, Edinburgh.

Lloyds TSB is currently the fifth-largest banking group in the UK, operating in England and Wales as Lloyds TSB; and in Scotland as Lloyds TSB Scotland plc. Its other subsidiaries include the mortgage bank Cheltenham and Gloucester; life assurance company Scottish Widows; and finance house Black Horse.

Lloyds TSB Group's activities are organised into three businesses: UK Retail Banking and Mortgages, Insurance and Investments, and Wholesale and International Banking. Lloyds TSB provides a service to a large number of clients in a broad range of markets. Lloyds TSB's Triple A (Moody's) senior-debt rating was placed on review for possible downgrade following the announcement of the organization's planned acquisition of HBOS.

On 17 September 2008, UK banking and insurance group HBOS confirmed that it was in "advanced" takeover talks with Lloyds TSB about a deal to merge. These talks arose following a run on the share price of HBOS connected with the subprime mortgage credit crisis and short selling of shares. Later in the day it was announced that Lloyds TSB had agreed to buy HBOS for 232p per share. On 18 September, Lloyds TSB confirmed the £12.2 billion deal.

Formation

Lloyds TSB was created in 1995, when the Lloyds Bank and the Trustee Savings Bank ("TSB") agreed to merge their operations, creating at that time the second-largest bank in the UK by market capitalisation after HSBC Holdings; and the largest by market share.

Lloyds Bank was one of the oldest banks in the UK, founded by John Taylor and Sampson Lloyd in 1765 in Birmingham. Through a series of mergers, Lloyds emerged to become one of the Big Four banks in the UK.

The TSB can trace its roots back to the first savings bank founded by Henry Duncan in Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire in 1810. The TSB itself was created in 1985, by an Act of Parliament that merged together all (except Airdrie Savings Bank) the remaining savings banks in Great Britain under TSB Bank plc.

UK expansion

The creation of Lloyds TSB was the beginning of a large-scale consolidation in the UK banking market. In 1995, the merger between TSB and Lloyds Bank formed Lloyds TSB Group plc, one of the largest forces in domestic banking.