One of the most familiar names on the British high street is set to disappear. Lloyds Banking Group has said it will retire the Halifax brand after 173 years, moving its customers over to Lloyds in a rebranding that will play out through 2027.
The brand, not just the branches
The change goes further than the branch closures that have become routine across British banking. It is the retirement of the Halifax name itself: over time, Halifax-badged branches, apps and accounts will carry the Lloyds brand instead. Around 190 Halifax branches will be rebranded as Lloyds or merged into a nearby Lloyds site during 2027, ITV News reported. Lloyds will become the group's lead consumer brand in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Not everything in the group is changing. Bank of Scotland, the group's third retail brand, will continue to operate in Scotland.
The bank sought to reassure customers that the switch would be seamless. "As Halifax changes to Lloyds, our Halifax customers will keep everything they know and love today — the same fantastic app design, the same friendly faces in our branches — even the same sort code and account number," said Jas Singh, the group's chief executive of consumer relationships, as quoted by Marketing Week. Customers do not need to take any action, and deposit protections are unaffected.
From Yorkshire building society to national brand
Halifax dates back to 1853, when it was founded as a building society in the West Yorkshire town whose name it took. It grew into Britain's largest building society before converting into a bank in 1997, then merged with Bank of Scotland in 2001 to form HBOS. When HBOS ran into severe trouble during the 2008 financial crisis, it was taken over by Lloyds, bringing the Halifax brand under Lloyds ownership.
That heritage is part of why the decision has resonated. For millions of customers, "Halifax" has been a fixture of savings accounts, mortgages and the high street for generations.
Why Lloyds is doing it
Lloyds framed the move as a simplification. The group said the distinction between the Halifax and Lloyds brands had become less meaningful over the years, with many customers already sharing the same app, branches and service teams. Consolidating on a single brand, it argued, makes the business simpler to run.
Behind that is the wider shift in how people bank. Everyday transactions have moved overwhelmingly to phones and online, thinning the flow of customers through branches and prompting banks across Britain to shrink their networks. Halifax will also stop opening new accounts as part of the wind-down.
The bank said no job cuts are tied to the rebranding, and that it is maintaining a £116 million investment in its historic Trinity Road office in West Yorkshire, where about 3,000 staff are based.
A thinning high street
The retirement of the Halifax name lands amid a long retreat of banks from town centers, as branch numbers have fallen sharply over the past decade. Consumer groups have warned that fewer branches and fewer brands can narrow choice, particularly for older and vulnerable customers and for those who still rely on cash and in-person service — concerns the industry has tried to address with shared "banking hubs" in some towns.
For now, Halifax signs remain up, and the practical changes are still months away. But the announcement marks the beginning of the end for a brand that has been part of British banking since the middle of the 19th century.
