MORE than half of the Halifax’s 800 branches in England and Wales are set to be rebranded as Bank of Scotland Business Banking in a multi-million pound push for market share in 2005.

The new branding is further acknowledgement by HBOS that the former Halifax management underestimated the value of the Bank of Scotland brand throughout the UK.

The move marks the expansion of Bank of Scotland into small business banking which will be rolled out throughout the UK in 2005. The branches are aimed at small traders of up to £1m turnover, many of them with very few staff.

HBOS has already targeted larger SME businesses with turnovers from £1m to £10m. As a result, the bank claims it has doubled its market share in the sector from 3% to 6%. Larger SME businesses come under the wing of Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking, headed by corporate banking chief George Mitchell.

• Barclays Capital, one of the proposed financiers of retail entrepreneur Philip Green’s aborted £12 billion bid for Marks & Spencer, will win the title Bank of the Year at the prestigious Thomson Financial International Financing Review Awards tomorrow.

  The investment banking arm of Barclays, involved in leading bond issues for Bradford & Bingley, Network Rail and Northern Rock, will also scoop awards for the year’s leading Sterling Bond House, Covered Bond House and European Loan House.

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