The last four weeks have been mixed for the
asset finance arm of Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), the 65 percent
government-owned UK banking leviathan formed from the merger of
Lloyds TSB and HBOS.

Since his appointment last February as head of
the asset and motor finance divisions of LBG, David Oldfield has
been faced with some tough decisions on how to merge the two
companies.

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At the end of April, the company announced it
would cut 985 jobs from HBOS’ asset and motor finance businesses.
This follows a review by Bank of Scotland which concluded “the
majority were no longer financially viable”.

Oldfield, therefore, decided to close to new
business HBOS’ POS dealer finance, vendor and intermediary, and
specialist asset finance operations.

“This is a significant step forward for the
company which underlines our commitment to the industry,” said
Chris Sutton, the newly appointed managing director of the combined
motor and leisure businesses.

LGB also said it would be offering all of HBOS
dealer finance customers “the opportunity” to transfer their
facilities over to Black Horse.

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For all intermediaries within the group’s
non-dealer businesses, LBG is offering 30 days to accept new
business from retail customers, and a further 60 days to write
business currently in the pipeline. Quite an opportunity,
indeed.

Oldfield has also been busy setting up the
leadership team at LBG, which, it seems, is largely made up of
ex-Lloyds management.

Simon Featherstone, formerly Lloyds TSB
Commercial Finance’s managing director, is now heading up the
small-ticket leasing and invoice discounting business. Featherstone
reports to John Maltby – previously CEO of Lloyds TSB Commercial.
Working alongside Maltby is Vasgen Edwards, formerly MD of
corporate asset finance and rail capital at Lloyds TSB Corporate
Markets.

With a combined workforce of nearly 7,000
employees, it will be interesting to see how LBG manages the
merger.

Jason T Hesse