Lloyds Banking Group

Universal bank · London, United Kingdom

Lloyds Banking Group is the UK's largest domestic retail and commercial bank, formed in 2009 when Lloyds TSB acquired HBOS, with about 65,000 staff and total assets of GBP 944bn at end 2025. Business banking runs through Lloyds Bank plc and Bank of Scotland: start-ups with turnover up to GBP 3m pay no account fee for 12 months and GBP 10 a month after that. The group has almost no operations outside the UK apart from Lloyds Bank GmbH in Germany. It completed the UK's first tokenised deposit transaction on a public blockchain in January 2026 and is retiring the Halifax brand.

Legal name: Lloyds Banking Group plc
Regulated by: PRA/FCA (UK), BaFin (Lloyds Bank GmbH, Germany)
Licence confirmed: yes, on a regulator's own list
Established: 2009
Website: www.lloydsbankinggroup.com

Scores, 0 to 10

10.0United Kingdom

UK clearing bank whose start-up account has no fee for 12 months, then GBP 10 a month, with online application and an instant decision on up to GBP 5,000 credit. · source

8.5Financial strength & stability

Lloyds Bank plc rated A+ (S&P), A1 (Moody's), AA (Fitch); group CET1 13.6% at 30 June 2026; not on the FSB 2025 G-SIB list. · source

7.0Fast digital onboarding

Apply online in minutes with an instant lending decision, but applicants must be UK residents with a UK mobile number and turnover of GBP 3m or less. · source

6.0Lowest fees

No account fee for 12 months on a first business account, then GBP 10 a month; Wise reports 100 free electronic transactions a month then GBP 0.20 each. · source

6.0Trade, manufacturing & import-export

Importer letters of credit, guarantees and standbys and currency accounts are offered, with trade specialists available to businesses above GBP 3m turnover. · source

6.0Business cards (Visa, Mastercard)

Lloyds issues extra Business Debit Cards to partners and employees at no annual fee with a GBP 700 daily ATM limit, and the Business Credit Card is Mastercard with no fee in year one then GBP 32 per cardholder unless GBP 6,000 is spent. · source

6.0On-ramp: buy crypto with fiat

A July 2026 review found Lloyds publishes no crypto transfer caps and Faster Payments to FCA-registered exchanges generally clear, while payments to Binance are blocked across group brands and credit card crypto purchases have been banned since February 2018; nothing specific is published for business accounts. · source

6.0Off-ramp: crypto to fiat in a business account

Lloyds banks FCA-registered crypto firm Archax, which moved funds from a tokenised deposit trade back into its regular Lloyds account in January 2026, and exchange withdrawals reach Lloyds and Halifax accounts, but no business source-of-funds process for crypto proceeds is published. · source

5.5Startups & VC-backed companies

Start-ups can apply before trading with no income history, get up to GBP 400 rewards and a 6-month Xero subscription, but there is no dedicated venture or innovation banking unit. · source

5.5Customer satisfaction

Trustpilot TrustScore 4.0 from 12,401 reviews for lloydsbank.com, with 47% of reviews at one star. · source

5.0Cross-border payments, FX and multi-currency accounts

International payments cost GBP 15 via internet banking with a 2.60% exchange rate markup for amounts below GBP 25,000, per Wise's February 2026 guide. Commercial Banking lending grew GBP 5.9bn in the first half of 2026 across Corporate and Institutional Banking, but the group operates almost entirely in the UK. · source

5.0Online businesses: e-commerce and SaaS

Standard business current account with Xero integration offer; card acceptance is through third-party merchant services rather than a bundled acquiring product. A new Lloyds Business Account comes with a free 6-month Xero subscription and up to GBP 250,000 daily payments, but there is no USD receiving account or API product for software firms. · source

4.5Best interest on business balances

Instant Access Account from GBP 1 and 32 Day Notice and Fixed Term Deposits from GBP 10,000 to GBP 5 million; rates are variable and shown on the savings page. · source

4.5Fintech companies that need a partner bank

The Launch Innovation Programme and a Fintech Investment team work with fintechs as suppliers and partners; no public safeguarding-account programme for EMIs was found. · source

3.5Foreign-owned & non-resident companies

To open a Lloyds Business Account you must be a UK resident with a UK mobile number applying for a UK business with a UK trading address. · source

3.5High-risk verticals (iGaming, cannabis, adult, forex)

Lloyds Banking Group links a 2026 gambling and adult entertainment sector statement on its site, but the file returned an error page today, so the policy could not be read; the Business Credit Card excludes gambling transactions from cashback. · source

3.5Stablecoins (USDC, USDT and others)

Lloyds is one of the 21 institutions that on 1 September 2026 committed to a bank stablecoin company aiming to launch a USD coin in the first half of 2027, issued sterling tokenised deposits on the public Canton Network in January 2026 and ran live tokenised deposit payments in Project Agora; no stablecoin account or payout is open to clients yet. · source

3.0Europe (EU, EEA, Switzerland)

Lloyds Bank GmbH (rated A2 by Moody's) and LBCM Wertpapierhandelsbank GmbH in Frankfurt are the group's only EU entities listed on its credit ratings page. · source

2.0Crypto-friendly bank

Lloyds Banking Group, including Halifax and Bank of Scotland, blocked credit card crypto purchases in 2018 and has published no onboarding policy for crypto businesses. · source

1.0Crypto wallet and custody for a business

Lloyds Banking Group holds no crypto for personal or business clients; a June 2026 guide confirms Halifax holds no bitcoin in custody, and Lloyds' digital asset work is tokenised deposits and tokenised gilts, not client crypto wallets. · source

1.0Accept crypto payments

Lloyds' Cardnet hosted payment page accepts Visa, Mastercard, Diners, Discover, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal, with no crypto or stablecoin option, checked September 2026. · source

1.0Bitcoin

Lloyds sells no bitcoin or custody, and a June 2026 check found Halifax Share Dealing lists no crypto ETN even after the FCA allowed retail access in October 2025. · source

1.0Ethereum

Lloyds sells no ether, custody, staking or ether ETNs to clients, checked June 2026. · source

Sources

Built on public information and the BankStore team's own aggregated experience; no confidential client or partner data. Bank Index and BankStore are not banks. This is information, not financial advice.