Lloyds TSB said yesterday that a merged Lloyds-HBOS group will be called Lloyds Banking Group, dropping the historic Halifax, Bank of Scotland and TSB names from the corporate title.

News of the rebranding came as Eric Daniels, chief executive of Lloyds, refused to give any guarantees on job losses, which could mount up to tens of thousands, with Scotland - the home of HBOS's headquarters and its Bank of Scotland corporate division - likely to be particularly hard hit.

Lloyds insisted that it will continue to use all the names in some form on the high street after the merged company is rebranded in January.

Mr Daniels said Lloyds has identified an additional £500 million of synergies from the Lloyds-HBOS merger, taking total cost savings to £1.5 billion, fuelling fears of job cuts. He declined to give details of redundancies other than to say the merger will take three years to complete.

Lloyds reiterated its promise to keep HBOS's historic head office at The Mound in Edinburgh as the bank's Scottish headquarters, but said nothing else to allay fears of widespread job losses in Labour's Scottish heartland, although Mr Daniels rubbished suggestions that the tally could reach 40,000.

Unite, Britain's biggest trades union, called on Mr Daniels to end speculation about job cuts. Derek Simpson, Unite joint general secretary, said: “It is completely unacceptable for the banks to continue fuelling speculation while leaving their staff in the dark.

Mr Daniels said both he and HBOS's outgoing chief executive, Andy Hornby, are keeping employees up to date via a weekly telephone call.

Lloyds also said that it has started recruiting two non-executive directors at the behest of the Treasury. The Lloyds board will nominate the pair, but the Government will have the power of veto over any appointments.

The bank's comments came as Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, said that there was a case for rethinking the role and appointment of non-executive directors of banks and other complex financial groups.

“There is an issue about the total amount of time that non-executives spend on businesses as complicated as banks and insurance companies,” he said.

Sources close to Lloyds said it was highly unlikely that shareholders' take up of a planned ordinary share issue would raise the £13 billion needed to bolster Tier 1 capital to the level required by the FSA. This would leave the Government to pick up a signficant overhang of ordinary shares, although how much is not yet clear.

Banking sources insisted there was little shareholder support for a possible rival bid led by Jim Spowart, the banking veteran at the centre of a possible counterbid for HBOS.

Mr Spowart confirmed that the Takeover Panel had been in contact with him. “We had a full and frank discussion,” he said. Mr Spowart, a former chief executive of HBOS's Intelligent Finance unit, said that the panel had also been in contact with the merchant bank advising the mystery suitor for whom he is a frontman.

Banking sources said the panel had not become involved at the instigation of either HBOS or Lloyds TSB. “Neither believed there was enough substance to the so-called bid to merit contacting the panel,” a source said.

Mr Spowart, who declined to identify the suitor, said: “This is genuine.” Shares in HBOS rose by 6.14 per cent to 105.4p. Lloyds TSB closed unchanged at 197.8p.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive