Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has confirmed that from November it will cease to offer its investment advice service for customers who hold less than £100,000 ($162,000) in savings and investments, a company spokesman told PBI.

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LBG said that customers with over £100,000 of investible assets will be referred to the group’s private banking service, which will offer tailored fee paying investment advice.

It added that financial advisers will be offered new roles within the business, while there will be no compulsory redundancies.

 

Reform ahead of RDR

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The move is in response to a review by LBG of how the market will evolve following the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) on 31 December, the group said.

The review showed that for the majority of LBG’s customers demand for a fee-based financial planning advice service shrinks when they have lower amounts to invest, LBG added.

The Group also said that existing retail investment customers with less than £100,000 of investable assets will be able to access a non-advised service through Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB.

 

Lloyds complaints in H1 down 18%

In February Lloyds announced it would divide its advice service between basic protection and financial planning.

They added that basic protection advice will continue to be offered to all customers following the changes.

The Group also said that they have not yet announced the private banking fee structure for the RDR.

LBG banking complaints for the first half of 2012 were down 21% from the same period last year, from 121,906 to 96,276, according to aggregated complaints data recently released by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The FSA added that this equates to 1.4 complaints per 1000 customers – fewer than any other bank – while LBG aim to reduce this to 1.3 by the end of 2012.