Our Wholesale division serves in excess of a million businesses, ranging from start-ups and small enterprises to global corporations. We support corporate and commercial customers throughout the economic cycle to ensure their financial health, stability and growth. Through this approach we are able to build deep and lasting relationships with customers, and support their ongoing contributions to the UK economy.

 

Supporting SMEs

 

Our SME Charter includes pledges to help support access to finance, to set out the terms on which we will lend and to encourage enterprise. We are running 200 customer seminars nationwide each year until 2012, on the issues that matter to SMEs including starting up, employment, exporting, bidding for London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games contracts, finance and sustainability. We have met more than 30,000 business customers at these events so far. We have also launched a similar Charter for Commercial Finance customers. In our Charter we promised to help 100,000 businesses start up every year until 2012. In 2010, we helped 105,000 start-ups. We also offer 18 months’ free banking for start-ups and six months’ free day-to-day banking for business customers switching to us.

 

We have responded to customer requests for greater access to business advisers by training 2,500 staff nationwide to open business accounts and support the needs of start-ups. We have invested £200 million in systems to support SME banking and have a network of 1,500 relationship managers nationwide, to support customers. In contrast to many other banks, local lending discretion is an important part of our service and our local managers have the authority to agree loans up to £500,000.

 

London 2012

 

As the official Banking and Insurance Partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we are leading the way in ensuring that our small business customers can take advantage of the contracts that are available. We have made available £1 billion for businesses bidding for 2012 contracts and we have published a guide to help businesses looking to win London 2012 contracts. One in three contracts awarded so far have gone to our small business customers.

 

 

SUSTAINABLITY CASE STUDY

Exeter City Football Club is introducing new measures to improve their environmental credentials with the support of Lloyds TSB Commercial.

 

Established in 1904, Exeter City FC was saved from closing eight years ago as a result of serious financial problems. The local community and fans bought the club through the Supporters’ Trust and Lloyds TSB Commercial structured a banking facility that enabled them to open a business bank account.

 

Since then, the club has enjoyed great success on-field; and stabilised its finances off-field by operating within its means and introducing a series of sustainable initiatives. These include harvesting rainwater and grass, installing eco-shower heads in the dressing rooms and water saving devices in the toilets, and movement sensitive lighting in certain areas of the stadium.

 

The club is now installing solar panels on its roof and is investigating the use of wood-chip boilers to help preserve energy and reduce overheads.

 

Bruce Henderson, business manager at Exeter City FC, said: “Through recycling, harvesting and using eco-friendly water systems we have reduced our carbon footprint as well as our costs and now run as a more efficient business. Lloyds TSB Commercial has provided us with the support we needed to achieve our business and sustainability objectives for the club.”

 

Nigel Stocks, relationship manager for Lloyds TSB Commercial, said: “Exeter City FC has worked extremely hard to become a successful and sustainable business.

 

Sustainability is a key issue for all businesses and Exeter City FC illustrates how easy it can be to make the slight changes that improve businesses’ green credentials and help reduce their overheads.”

 

Business and Environment Managers

 

We know SMEs want more guidance on environmental business issues. In response, in 2010 we launched our Business & Environment Manager programme. We have trained 600 Business & Environment Managers across the UK on a bespoke programme developed in association with the Cambridge University Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Our training programme has achieved accreditation by the Chartered Banker Institute. We have also launched a sustainability website for businesses including an online tool to help customers manage the environmental risks and maximise the commercial opportunities in the UK’s drive to a low-carbon economy. The website attracts an average of 3,000 visits per month.

 

We are the only major UK bank to provide this type of support to its business customers.

 

The Green

 

Lex Autolease, part of the Group’s Asset Finance division, is the UK’s largest and most experienced fleet management company. Earlier this year, Lex Autolease launched ‘The Green’, a website that highlights why sustainability issues are important when developing a fleet. It provides a wealth of practical information for fleet managers to reduce vehicles’ carbon emissions and maximise cost savings.

 

Business support unit

 

We have a team of more than 1,000 experts to help business customers facing financial difficulties, underlining our commitment to support customers throughout the economic cycle. Wherever possible, we work to turn these businesses around and restore their financial stability so that they are able to return to mainstream banking. By focusing on helping these businesses recover, we have an opportunity to deepen relationships and retain loyal customers. Our Business Support Unit has helped to recover around 1,900 businesses since 2009, protecting more than 35,000 jobs in the UK. Over 80 per cent of the companies we have helped are SMEs.

 

In 2011 Lloyds TSB was named Bank of the Year for the seventh year running, by The Finance Directors’ Excellence Awards in conjunction with the CBI, for our support for customers during the downturn. This is the largest independent survey of its kind.

 

Banking for charities

 

We have an important role to play in providing banking facilities for local community organisations, clubs and societies. These are the lifeblood of many local communities and we are committed to supporting them. We offer free banking to support smaller clubs and charities that have an income under £50,000. This covers around 7 out of 10 registered charities in the UK and the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of small, local voluntary community groups and unregistered charities. Clubs and charities with an income of over £50,000 a year benefit from 18 months’ free day-to-day banking. In excess of 260,000 not-for-profit accounts are held with the Group.

 

We also encourage giving time and resources to these groups, and use the local knowledge of our colleagues to identify where our efforts can make the biggest difference in a particular community.

 

Foyles

The Business Support Unit helped to put historic London bookstore Foyles back into the black last year. It had been struggling for years, hampered by antiquated payment and unconventional shelving systems. The BSU stepped in during 2006 to get Foyles back on track. Recognising the strength of the brand, new London stores were opened at St Pancras station and Westfield shopping centre in 2008. Asset Finance provided funding of £850,000 and BSU agreed a bridging loan of £800,000 for stock. Foyles was returned to mainstream banking in May 2010 and was named UK Bookseller of the Year.

 

Sam Husain, CEO Foyles: “I have found our regular review meetings very helpful and constructive. Apart from continuing our banking relationship and guiding us through some challenging and difficult trading periods in the past, your help in securing suitable finance for some of our recent development initiatives, such as the opening of our new branch at Westfield, has been invaluable.”