Ahead of its UK counterparts from October the 1st the two banking arms in Spain Lloyds and Halifax will come together as one. From October 25th all Halifax branches will be re-branded to Lloyds.
At present there still remains a few differences between the two in lending criteria.
Lloyds minimum loan size is € 100k whereas Halifax is € 50k. Lloyds only offer 12-month Euribor trackers whereas Halifax offer 1 month and 12 month.
Debt to income ratios are 50% at Lloyds but they use an inflated interest rate of 5% to calculate this and Halifax is 35% using the current rates of around 2.5%.
For any clients with applications currently being processed by Halifax their broker or the client themselves should push for an offer quickly to make sure their terms are honoured as it would seem far more likely criteria will moved totally to the Lloyds current stance rather than an adaptation of the two.
Given the banking groups appetite to lend in Spain for the foreseeable future is very low it is unlikely criteria will be relaxed to meet the more accessible Halifax current risk profile.