Lloyds Bank’s controversial decision to kill off the savings passbook is just a bid to close branches… dodgier than Arthur Daley

What would Arthur Daley – the loveable Cockney wheeler dealer in 1980s and 1990s TV comedy Minder – think of Lloyds Bank’s controversial decision to kill off the treasured savings passbook?

I imagine he would be spitting feathers, like most of the three million (mostly elderly) savers who will soon discover they are to lose them as the bank strives to rid them from its branches.

Savers with Halifax and Bank of Scotland are also suffering this fate.

Daley, the dodgy businessman played so brilliantly by the late George Cole, is relevant to Lloyds’ move because he promoted a savings account on TV called Liquid Gold. 

What would Arthur Daley (pictured) – the loveable Cockney wheeler dealer in 1980s and 1990s TV comedy Minder – think of Lloyds Bank’s controversial decision to kill off the treasured savings passbook? 

I imagine Daley (pictured) would be spitting feathers, like most of the three million (mostly elderly) savers who will soon discover they are to lose them as the bank strives to rid them from its branches

READ MORE: Lloyds bank planning to scrap millions of passbook savings accounts in controversial move feared to hit elderly the hardest and trigger yet more branch closures

The moral was you were far better off saving than making money from some of his hair-brained business ventures.

Forty years on, savers in Halifax Liquid Gold (Leeds Permanent Liquid Gold originally) are among those who will lose their passbooks.

Lloyds’ ‘removal of [the] physical passbook’ (its horrible choice of words) has nothing to do with treating customers better. 

As the bank’s internal document detailing the rationale behind the move states, it’s to dissuade savers from using branches to transact. 

Instead, they will be encouraged to save online or use their local post office.

It’s obvious that this is the precursor to something even more wicked – a swathe of branch closures across the three brands in the coming months.

For many customers, it’s the pits. Shame on Lloyds.

PS: I love my Newbury Building Society passbook…

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