The origins of Lloyds Bank stretch back to 1765, when John Taylor and Sampson Lloyd set up a private banking business in Birmingham, England. Two sons of the original partners followed in their footsteps by establishing a bank – Barnetts Hoares Hanbury and Lloyd - in London’s Lombard Street. Eventually, this became absorbed into the Lloyds Banking Company.

Over the years, Lloyds Bank expanded through a series of mergers, including the Wilts and Dorset Bank in 1914 and the Capital and Counties Bank in 1918. By 1923, Lloyds Bank had made some fifty take-overs, one of which was the last private firm to issue its own bank notes – Fox, Fowler and Co. of Wellington, Somerset.

1911 saw the formation of Lloyds Bank (France) when Lloyds Bank acquired Armstrong and Co., based in Paris and Le Havre. From 1917 it was run jointly as Lloyds and National and Provincial Bank. In 1955, Lloyds Bank bought full ownership and it became Lloyds Bank (Foreign) and later Lloyds Bank Europe.

A strong connection with South America began in 1918 with the acquisition of the London and River Plate Bank. The later merger with the London and Brazilian Bank resulted in the Bank of London and South America (BOLSA). In 1971, Lloyds Bank bought the controlling interest in BOLSA and merged it with Lloyds Bank Europe to form Lloyds and Bolsa International Bank. This name changed in 1974 to Lloyds Bank International (LBI) and LBI was itself merged into Lloyds Bank in 1986.

1988 saw the Bank merge five of its businesses with the Abbey Life Insurance Company to create Lloyds Abbey Life.

By the early 1990s, Lloyds Bank had offices in 30 countries, from Argentina to the USA. In New Zealand, an already commanding presence as the National Bank of New Zealand was further strengthened by the 1994 take-over of the Rural Bank, making it the leading provider of agricultural finance.

On August 1 1995, Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) joined the Lloyds Bank Group. Later the same year, on 28 December, Lloyds Bank Group merged with TSB Group to form Lloyds TSB Group plc. In September 1996, Lloyds Abbey Life became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lloyds TSB Group.

Information supplied courtesy of Lloyds