Fears for Lloyds-funded charities
Updated on 06 November 2009
Born out of philanthropy banking giant Lloyds now plans to cut annual charitable donations in half in the wake of its merger with HBOS.
Many of banks which almost went under in the financial crisis started their existence as philanthropic organisations - and still make large donations to charity.
But in the wake of the merger of Lloyds TSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland, the new bank is planning to cut its annual charitable donation in half.
Some groups that received those funds, such as Streetwork in Edinburgh, now fear for the future.
The café Streetwork provides hot meals for some of the city's most desperate people. For its finding it depends on grants from the LLoyds TSB foundation for Scotland - one of four charitable foundations which together receive 1 per cent of all the pre-tax profits from the Lloyds Banking group.
But after the acquisition of HBOS the group is expected to make a massive loss this year - which means next to no money for charity.
Lloyds has offered to bring forward some donations from future years - but it also wants to cut contributions to 0.5 per cent of profits, and appoint its own trustees to the board of the foundation.
The bank is meeting with the charitable arm today to enter talks aimed at finding an agreement.
Lloyds now has to decide just how much they can afford to give as they struggle to rebuild their business.
