Lloydstsb.com

Lloyds TSB is developing a pan-European net banking service, with the first stage launching in Spain in the middle of the year. The online bank will be a stand-alone brand, with a name yet to be decided. It plans to launch in Spain, roll out across a number of other European countries and return to the UK by the end of the year, according to a Lloyds TSB spokesman. "The service will run in parallel with Lloyds TSB's web site (www.lloydstsb.com), but will be created in a different way. We will outsource a lot of the operations," he said. Lloyds TSB also runs a free ISP for certain customers, giving free net access, email and access to a range of products and services. It aims to attract one million customers to the pan-European bank during the next three to four years. The specific services offered are yet to be confirmed, but it will aim to be "very competitive in terms of price", said the spokesman. Lloydstsb.com, which launched in June 1999 and has around 160,000 registered customers, already offers basic transactions, enabling consumers to set up direct debits and move money between accounts. It anticipates one million registered customers by the end of 2000, and intends to develop the services offered through the year. Lloyds TSB is also planning an online business-to-business service aimed at corporate, commercial and small business clients. The company, which released its results for 1999 last week, said that it hopes to harness internet technology to make its business more efficient: it also announced plans to cut 3,000 jobs in a cost-cutting exercise. Last year, the bank cut #66m from its operating expenses, and profits before tax rose by 20 per cent to #3.6 billion.

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