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As Lloyds TSB's chief executive Sir Brian Pitman prepares to stand down, Jules Stewart profiles the policies which have transformed the bank into the UK's number one financial services organisation
LOYDS TSB GROUP'S acquisition in October of the 37% stake in life assurer Lloyds Abbey Life which it did not already own, has fulfilled chief executive Sir Brian Pitman's ambition to turn what was once the smallest of Britain's four big banks into the country's top financial services organisation.
The cash and share deal is valued at (English pound)1.7 billion and makes Lloyds TSB Britain's second biggest retailer of life assurance behind the Prudential Corporation, and the third largest mortgage lender after the Halifax Building Society and Abbey National.
The Lloyds Abbey Life deal - along with last year's takeover of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society (C&G) and the merger with TSB Group - cost Lloyds Bank nearly 6 billion. But it has been a vindication for Pitman who in 13 years at the helm twice failed in his attempt to expand through acquisition. In 1986 Lloyds was unsuccessful in its bid for Standard Chartered, while six years later Pitman lost out to HSBC in the battle to acquire Midland Bank.
Pitman, now 65, steps down next February after a career which analyst William Vincent at UK merchant bank Schroders says made him "undoubtedly Europe's most outstanding bank manager". His successor, TSB's former chief executive Peter Ellwood, will be closely scrutinised by his predecessor who stays on as the group's chairman, a role he is expected to occupy with a definite hands-on approach.
"Under Pitman the bank was managed ruthlessly by the principle of delivering value...