Lloyds Bank will scrap the Halifax brand after 173 years, it has confirmed today.

All Halifax customer accounts will be changed to Lloyds over time, the banking giant says. 

Halifax, which started life as a building society in 1853, was rumoured to be on the chopping block earlier in the year.

It said at the time: 'We regularly look at the role our brands play in supporting our customers.'

Our recent analysis shows there are 178 locations with a Lloyds and Halifax branch in close vicinity – meaning fears those branches will disappear. 

Lloyds Banking Group also owns Bank of Scotland and has cut branches heavily in the past decade.

Earlier in the year, it announced a further 95 sites would shut between May 2026 and March 2027 – 53 Lloyds branches, 31 Halifax and 11 Bank of Scotland, leaving just 531 open once all close, compared to around 1,500 in 2015.

Jas Singh, of Lloyds Banking Group, said: '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.

'But as Lloyds customers, they’ll get the best innovation and experiences we offer.'

Lloyds said it remained committed to the town of Halifax and the wider Yorkshire and Humber region, where some 3,000 staff are based at its Trinity Road office.

It says no job cuts are being announced as part of the shake-up, and Halifax branches will either be rebranded to Lloyds or shifted to a Lloyds branch nearby throughout 2027.

Community bank campaigner Derek French told This is Money: 'It's inevitable in this digital age but it finally buries the distinctiveness of the Halifax offering.'

Jenny Ross, Which? money editor, said: 'Halifax has been part of the British banking landscape for close to two centuries, and the loss of this historic brand will almost certainly be felt by its customers - some of whom will have banked with Halifax for decades.

'Lloyds must ensure that Halifax customers are kept updated throughout the transition and should stand ready to assist customers concerned by these changes.

'Scammers will use any hook they can to try and steal money and personal information from victims, and it's possible that fraudsters may try to capitalise on these changes. 

'Halifax customers should be vigilant about any unexpected correspondence, and if contacted by a caller purporting to be from their bank, hang up and ring back using the number on the back of their bank card. 

'The switch will be handled by Lloyds, so you will never be asked to transfer funds manually, or be required to share security details - two telltale signs of a scam.'

Halifax demutualised and launched on the stockmarket in 1997, taking it from a building society to a bank and creating 7.5million new shareholders in the process. 

The former Halifax Building Society members were given a minimum of 200 free shares if they had £100 or more in an account, landing them windfalls of at least £1,469.

Halifax merged with Bank of Scotland to form Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) plc in 2001 and grew substantially. 

Its shares soared as it became a dominant presence in UK banking, which was proving a lucrative business at the time.

It became part of TV advertising lore in the early 2000s thanks to branch member, 'Halifax Howard', who starred in a series of ads including a parodied version of Mousse T. and Tom Jones' Sex Bomb to advertise the phrase: 'Extra, extra, I know you want more.'

But seven years after it was formed, HBOS was no more. 

It was acquired by Lloyds in the 2008 financial crisis in a government-brokered rescue deal, after it crashed in the credit crunch with deep exposure to the collapsing UK property market. 

HBOS shares hit a peak of £11.50 in February 2007, but when the Lloyds deal was announced on September 17, 2008 HBOS shares had nosedived to below 180p. 

Earlier in the year, Lloyds said if it did make any changes, there would be no change to customers' account numbers, nor would there be any impact to Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection – currently £120,000 per individual.

Lloyds and Halifax operate in the same market in England/Wales while Bank of Scotland is its only brand in Scotland.

TSB could join Halifax in disappearing in the near future.

TSB has been a brand name in Britain for 216 years but is rumoured to go after Santander's £2.65billion acquisition of the bank earlier this month.

Santander is gearing up to axe the TSB name and run the combined businesses under the name Santander UK.

TSB employs 5,000 staff and has approximately 175 branches across Britain. The TSB name dates back to the Trustee Savings Bank starting in a tiny hamlet in Scotland's Dumfriesshire in 1810.

Santander previously declined to confirm whether the TSB brand would either be removed or be retained.

Halifax's history dates back to the Industrial Revolution – the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building Society, as it was originally known, was established in the Yorkshire town of Halifax in 1853. 

It started life as a loan and investment society for working people. Those with spare cash could deposit it and receive interest – others could then borrow funds to buy or build a house, the fundamental origins for most building societies.

By the 1890s and their peak, there were 3,642 building societies. Thanks to many mergers, acquisitions and demutualisations, there are now just 42 standing, the biggest of which is Nationwide. 

Esau Hanson was the first person to be granted a Halifax mortgage, according to Halifax's website. He borrowed £121 to buy land for a house in St John’s Lane. 

In the early decades of the 1900s, Halifax went from a small local society to a more national facing brand.  

By 1928, it took over a major rival building society and the new Halifax Building Society had assets of £47million, making it the largest institution of its kind in the world.

The aftermath of the First World War brought a severe housing shortage. 

Halifax was pivotal in supporting national house building schemes, advancing money to developers at low rates of interest.

In total, it says it helped finance 14,000 new houses.

Support for home builders was again required at the end of the Second World War. 

Loan schemes were made available to large scale estate developers as well as private individuals.

By the 1980s, new legislation allowed building societies to demutualise and increase their range of services to compete with traditional banks.

Halifax began to offer retail banking, stock broking and insurance products.

In 1997, Halifax members voted overwhelmingly for the organisation to convert to plc status.

On 2 June 1997, the Halifax Building Society ceased to exist. The share flotation was the largest seen on the UK stock market, with some 7.5million new shareholders created.

It was merged with Bank of Scotland to form HBOS in 2001, and then acquired by Lloyds Banking Group in 2009.

Are you a Halifax customer upset by the changes? editor@thisismoney.co.uk