Bank eyes cull of Halifax counters

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Halifax owner Lloyds Banking Group is reviewing its agency counters - bank counters operated under licence out of a third party business, such as an estate agent, solicitor or financial advisor.

The closure of all of the counters is one of the options Lloyds is looking at, although it may close only some, or none, a spokesman said.

One or two staff are thought to work at each counter.

The spokesman said: "It may be that some staff could leave. It's a question of whether the people who run these businesses will deploy them on to other things or not. If it's a very small business, it may be that this is just one of a whole range of things (the staff) have to do."

Agency counters are not Halifax branches and their staff are employed by the agent as part of their wider business. They offer basic services such as paying-in and withdrawing money, not the full range of services available at Halifax branches.

Lloyds said in a statement: "A strategic review of the agency network is currently under way and until this review is concluded, no decisions will be taken regarding the rest of the agency network.

"The network of 3,000 Lloyds TSB, Halifax and Bank of Scotland branches are not involved in this review and continue to operate as normal."

The review of the agency counters is being carried out as part of the integration of Lloyds and HBOS, which merged last year. Halifax has already opted to close 26 agency counters in England and Wales, a decision it announced in June.

The Lloyds statement said: "Agents operating the counters impacted by these closures have already been informed and the counter closures will take place in September and October."