Halifax (bank)

**Halifax** is a major bank in the United Kingdom.  It was a building society, but 'demutualised' and became a bank. Halifax then merged with the Bank of Scotland and made up HBOS.  In 2009, HBOS merged with Lloyds TSB and made Lloyds Banking Group.  Until 2010 Halifax was also an estate agent.

## History
The Halifax started in 1853 as the **Halifax Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society** at the Old Cock Inn in Halifax, West Yorkshire. The building society was created to allow working-class people in Halifax to invest their money in a local and 'mutual' organisation.

In 1928 it merged with the **Halifax Equitable Building Society** and changed its name to the **Halifax Building Society**.  In 1973 the Halifax built its headquarters on Trinity Road in Halifax.  By the 1990s the Halifax was the largest building society in Britain; once the Halifax became a bank the largest building society was (and still is) the Nationwide.

In 1995 the Halifax merged with the **Leeds Permanent Building Society**, this new larger building society then bought out Clerical Medical Fund Managers.

In 1997 the Halifax became a bank and registered with the London Stock Exchange.

By 1997 the Halifax was the fifth largest bank in the United Kingdom and had joined the 'big four' to make it a 'big five'.

The Halifax continued to grow and in 1999 the Halifax bought out the Birmingham Midshires Building Society and Comparetheloan.  In 1999 the Halifax set up '''Intelligent Finance', which was a telephone based bank.

In 2001 the Halifax merged with the Bank of Scotland and formed **Halifax Bank of Scotland** (HBOS).  Both brands were kept although some Halifax branches in Scotland became 'Bank of Scotland' and Bank of Scotland branches in Ireland became 'Halifax' branches.  This was done because the Bank of Scotland was much larger in Scotland than the Halifax, while Halifax was much larger in Ireland than the Bank of Scotland and had spent a lot of money advertising of Irish television.

In January 2009 HBOS was acquired by Lloyds TSB which subsequently became Lloyds Banking Group.  The Halifax is now just a brand name used by this group.

## Offices
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The bank has its main offices in Halifax town centre.  It also has other major offices in Copley (near Halifax) and Leeds The Leeds offices used to belong to the Leeds Permanent Building Society. There are also offices in Aylesbury, Nottingham and Buckinghamshire.

Now that the Halifax is part of Lloyds Banking Group there are also many former Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and TSB offices. Some services have been centralised, leading to job losses at some offices.

It was announced on June 30th 2010 that the Nottingham office is to close at the end of 2011. It has been confirmed by banking officials from Lloyds that a total of 198 jobs will be lost as a result.

## Branches
The Halifax has branches all over the United Kingdom and also has 44 in Ireland (although these are to close).  Many Halifax branches used to belong to the Leeds Permanent Building Society, which was taken-over by the Halifax in 1995.

File:Halifax bank, Halifax.jpg|Branch in Halifax
File:Halifax bank, King Edward Street, Leeds (4th May 2010) 001.jpg|Branch in Leeds
File:Halifax bank, Market Place, Wetherby.jpg|Branch in Wetherby
File:Halifax bank, Omagh, January 2010.JPG|Branch in Omagh

## References