HBOS

HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Bank of Scotland and Halifax brands in the UK, as well as HBOS Australia and HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Limited, the group's insurance division. HBOS was formed by the 2001 merger of Halifax plc and the Bank of Scotland. The formation of HBOS was heralded as creating a fifth force in British banking as it created a company of comparable size and stature to the established Big Four UK retail banks. It was also the UK's largest mortgage lender. The HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 saw the transfer of Halifax plc and Capital Bank plc to the Bank of Scotland, which had by then become a registered public limited company, Bank of Scotland plc. Although officially HBOS was not an acronym of any specific words, it is widely presumed to stand for Halifax Bank of Scotland. The corporate headquarters of the group were located on The Mound in Edinburgh, Scotland, the former head office of the Bank of Scotland. Its operational headquarters were in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, the former head office of Halifax. On 19 January 2009, the group was acquired and folded into Lloyds Banking Group through a takeover by Lloyds TSB, after both sets of shareholders approved the deal. Lloyds Banking Group stated that the new group would continue to use The Mound as the headquarters for its Scottish operations and would continue the issue of Scottish bank notes. HBOS was formed by a merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland in 2001, Halifax having demutualised and floated four years prior. In 2006, HBOS secured the passing of the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006, a private Act of Parliament that rationalised the bank's corporate structure. The act allowed HBOS to make the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland a public limited company, Bank of Scotland plc, which became the principal banking subsidiary of HBOS.