Britain's new "superbank" Lloyds Banking Group started trading Monday with a pledge to cut costs by at least 1.5 billion pounds (2.2 billion dollars) a year by 2011.
The new banking giant, created through an emergency merger between Lloyds TSB and HBOS, one of Britain's major mortgage lenders, will have a staff of 145,000 at 3,000 branches across Britain.
At the height of the banking crisis last September, competition rules were waived to allow the merger to go ahead as HBOS - Halifax Bank of Scotland - was buffeted by the growing turbulence in the banking sector, reported dpa.