Eight Shropshire Lloyds branches involved in Co-op £750m deal

Bank giant Lloyds today revealed it is selling off 632 of its branches - including eight across Shropshire - to the Co-op in a deal worth up to £750 million.

Branches under the Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham and Gloucester name will be transferred as part of the package.

Lloyds TSB branches at The Border, Telford, Wellington, Albrighton High Street, Church Street, Oswestry, Church Stretton, Ellesmere, Whitchurch and The Cheltenham and Gloucester branch at Shrewsbury are all included in the deal. The lloyds TSB branch in Tenbury Wells will also transfer.

Customers at those branches will be given the choice of transferring to the new owner, who will initially trade under the name TSB.

The move will give the Co-op up to an extra 4.8 million customers.

Co-op said the purchase would create a “real challenger bank” on the high street, tripling the size of its banking arm to nearly 1,000 branches and increasing its share of UK branches to around 10 per cent.

Lloyds, a part-nationalised bank, is offloading the branches to meet EU rules on state aid. Under the deal, the Co-op will pay £350m initially and a further potential £400m until 2027.

Chancellor George Osborne said: "This is another step towards creating a new banking system for Britain that gives real choice to customers and supports the economy."