Lloyds TSB has moved to reassure some of the Bank of Scotland’s principal customers that it will not seek to immediately off-load stakes built up as part of the bank’s integrated finance approach.

If the two banks merge next month, the combined business will ditch the Bank of Scotland’s model of taking stakes in companies, including Cala and Miller, while also providing debt finance.

The bank’s debt exposure to housebuilders across the whole of the UK is more than £4 billion.

Eric Daniels, the chief executive of Lloyds TSB, said the new bank will move closer to Lloyds’ more cautious approach to risk but said there would not be any “major wrenches” in the early days.

“We have to take a very studied approach and keep customers in the centre of our minds. We are going to be very careful,” he said.

His announcement came as HBOS sold its holdings in 47 government private-finance initiative (PFI) investment projects just days before a shareholder vote on the merger plan.

The bank has transferred the investments to a new infrastructure fund in a £434m deal backed by four large pension funds. The deal includes only the bank’s equity holdings, with HBOS expected to retain the billions of pounds of debt owed by the PFI projects.

Although HBOS has retained a 50.1% stake in the new vehicle, the stakes will move off its own balance sheet, freeing up much-needed capital for the bank.

It is understood it intends to sell down its holding over time through further fund-raising.

Flagship school regeneration projects in Edinburgh and Glasgow are among the schemes included in the deal, the biggest-ever transfer of PFI investments.

The Bank of Scotland’s exposure to building companies includes about £3.5 billion in senior debt, £200m in mezzanine finance — a halfway house between debt and equity — plus £300m in other loan stock and £100m of equity.

It also has about £17 billion tied up in joint ventures with high-profile customers such as Sir Tom Hunter, Nick Leslau, the property entrepreneur, and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a Saudi billionare.

Daniels said the new bank would take a cautious approach to risk. “We like the Lloyds risk model so the way we look at risk and process internally in terms of approvals and delegation will look more like Lloyds than any other models,” he said. “It won’t happen on day one but in the relatively near term we will move closer to Lloyds risk model.

“I don’t think it will have tremendous immediate implications for customers or staff. Most of the changes will happen over a two- to three-year period.”

Daniels also suggested the number of job losses incurred by the merger could be much lower than has been predicted.

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