C&G joins High Street graveyard

9th Jun 2009 12:36

There's little room for sentimentality in business, especially in the middle of the worst recession for decades, so Lloyds' decision to close all 164 Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) branches by November should come as little surprise.G&G, bought by Lloyds for £1.8bn in 1995, can trace its history back over 150 years, but its disastrous acquisition of HBOS has forced Lloyds to make some tough decisions.Another 1,660 jobs are set to go as part of the move in addition to the 3,000 already lost following the £12bn purchase of Halifax-owner HBOS in January."This move by Lloyds will rip the heart out of hundreds of local communities up and down the country," said Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of union, Unite. "This is truly a dark day for the financial services sector in this country.""Front line staff in banks across the country are blameless for the mistakes of management which have brought the important finance industry to the point of collapse," Simpson added.It's widely expected that Lloyds will cut many more jobs and close branches over time. Experts think the integration of HBOS could eventually claim as many as 25,000 jobs.Today's news comes less than a fortnight after Spain's Santander announced its plan to wipe out some of Britain's best known High Street banks by the end of next year. The 150-year old banking empire is paying £12m to paint over Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley's 1,300 branches with its own name and red flame logo. About 1,000 branches belonging to Abbey and B&B will take on the Spanish bank's livery from the first quarter of 2010. Alliance & Leicester follows later in the year. It's not the first time a big banking name has succumbed to the might of a foreign invader. Midland was swallowed up by HSBC in 1992 for £3.9bn, consigning the golden griffin logo to history, while TSB vanished as a separate entity in 1995 after merging with Lloyds. A history of bank mergersAlliance & Leicester taken over by Santander for £1.26bn in 2008Bradford & Bingley's branch network and £20bn in deposits bought by Santander for £612mNorthern Rock nationalised in 2008Abbey National bought by Santander for £8.9bn in 2004Scottish Widows fell to Lloyds TSB for £7bn in 2000Halifax and Bank of Scotland merged in 2000National Westminster cost Royal Bank of Scotland £21bn in the same yearWoolwich was sold to Barclays for £5.3bn in 2000TSB merged with Lloyds in 1995Cheltenham & Gloucester was taken out by Lloyds for £1.8bn, also in 1995Midland was swallowed up by HSBC following a £3.9bn bid in 1992