Lloyds gets 2012 bonus with merger

Lloyds TSB is set to reap a massive Olympic bonus after its £30 billion merger with HBOS.

Lloyds TSB paid £80 million to become the official bank of the 2012 Games and marketing chiefs were today relishing the prospect of promoting the deal across the Halifax network.

Staff were today in talks with the 2012 organising committee to approve a deal which will make the Olympic brand almost ubiquitous on the high street.

The extra coverage is likely to come at no extra cost to the bank and will be the envy of the six other "tier-one" sponsors such as adidas, British Airways and BT.

Already the Olympic rings and 2012 logo can be used by Lloyds TSB and its insurance arm Scottish Widows and will be emblazoned on Halifax outlets if they take the Lloyds TSB name in a post-merger rebranding.

Olympic promotions will run in thousands of former Halifax branches and Lloyds TSB will be able to aim marketing at former Halifax customers and its 70,000 extra staff. Games organising committee Locog could gain from the merger as it will have extra exposure without threatening exclusive deals with existing sponsors in other categories.

Lloyds TSB is an official ticket distributor, a role also enhanced if it doubles the size of its branch network when tickets go on sale in 2011. The bank is expected to invest more in marketing programmes.

A source said: "Clearly this is good news for our sponsorship deal. It effectively doubles the size of our activation programme."