One major UK banking provider has defiantly responded to an Independent Commission on Banking report that recommended an additional branch sell-off.
Lloyds Banking Group has demanded the ICB prove their supposition that the bank’s dominance of the UK current account market is having a negative impact on consumers. ‘Show us the evidence’ has been the rallying cry of several Lloyds executives as anger seems to be steadily building against the ICB.
Lloyds has already agreed to comply with a European Commission order to sell 600 of its branches. However the ICB states that the banking provider should sell nearly twice that figure in total, with some industry insiders predicting that the commission would rather see a target of 1,000 Lloyds branches sold.
Lloyd has responded by setting its face against any further changes to the plans to sell off 600 of its branches, however. Expectations are high within the industry that the list of which branches are going up on the auction block will be issued in approximately two weeks’ time.
Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive for Lloyds, is widely believed to be furious that his banking group was selected by the ICB due to its large share of the current account market; Lloyds purportedly controls 25 per cent of all current accounts currently in use in the UK.
A Lloyds insider made the contrast between Lloyds’ market share in regards to the amount of small business bank accounts its competitor Royal Bank of Scotland administrates. RBS holds a 25 per cent share of small business banking, but the ICB seems disinclined to point the finger at the banking group, said the embittered insider.