I think it’s worth mentioning that these are registered offices not operational headquarters… For example RBS and now NatWest group are registered at St Andrews Sq in Edinburgh… even when RBS was in its pomp under Fred Goodwin their operational HQ was at a newly built complex at Gogarburn on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Similarly Lloyds who have an operational HQ in Gresham St in the City. Also worth noting that at the time of the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, RBS made it clear that they would relocate their jurisdiction to England & Wales with Companies House in the event of Yes vote as their balance sheet sizes meant they needed to consider the loss of the lender of last resort which is the Bank of England.
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There are key differences in jurisdiction though - the law of Scotland is not the same as the law in England & Wales, even if they are broadly similar.
It’s not like having your registered office in London and your actual headquarters in Sheffield.
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Would like to also add to this: Scotland will not have a functional financial industry if it leaves the UK lol
I rang Lloyds today and also found this, much better than HSBC who have not been that great
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So I’ve recently opened a Club Lloyds account, which I’ll likely sack Monzo off into depending on how it goes.
So far, so good. The application was super slick, I got a decision there and then, the only one downside is I have to wait for an activation code in the snail mail to do anything with it.
The app seems really well designed and looking forward to giving it a go. Also based on my one phone call to Lloyds (no, you really do have to wait five days for your activation code in the post 
I’m super impressed at how easy and quick it was to speak to their Customer Service team.
I had considered going with a different bank (HSBC) but their customer service was so crap, I didn’t bother continuing with the application as a result.
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They aren’t a division - that means they are the same company. A division is basically the same as a trading name.
Like HSBC UK and First Direct; the latter is division of the former. Neither are divisions of HSBC Group.
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Sometimes it’s that’s simple. Old school isn’t necessarily a bad thing. 
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Indeed, I can’t belive I’ve not considered Lloyds before. Tried a good number of other options
Are the Lloyds push notifications still silent?
I always get vibrations (phone always in that mode) on iOS
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@MikeZ as far as I know they are still silent - as are Barclays, NatWest, RBS etc… why the hell that’s still the case I don’t know…
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The first thing I do with any app is turn off notification noises, so maybe they’re just coming at it from the other end of the stick
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At least you have the choice - those that would like sounds don’t!
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Not just banks, but e.g. the Amazon app too. I’d like to be alerted with a sound when my parcel is 8 stops away!
My worst nightmare! 
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Well the onboarding experience for Lloyds has been less than stellar so far.
TL;DR Don’t accidentally enter the wrong details at your peril and the agents were nothing but polite. The Process is the issue here.
- Open account, great - have to then wait for a activation code in the post.
- Receive it, manage to logon to online banking and update details including phone number
- Entered details into the mobile app, which it didn’t accept
- locked out and asked to reset on the website
- reset and asked to call with a reference number
- told I can’t use that reference number because I have updated my phone number and need to wait 48 hours for this to update before they can take the reference number, but I can wait for another code in the post
) - said I wasn’t waiting another five days and told I could go into a branch
- told I needed to setup voiceID, and was transferred across to the automated line
- automated line couldn’t verify me, put me through to an agent
- agent gave me a different number to ring and this agent said they could verify me
- Same agent said they then couldn’t verify me, and to try voice id again
- Tried voice id again, which worked this time and then disconnected me
- Rang back, entered my details for the 7,400,0222 time and used voice id to be put in a queue
- Spoke to someone who said they could do it but would need to additionally verify me via text
- did it, reset and sweated when re-entering
- gained access
Urgh, why do the legacy banks make it so hard to get into your mobile banking.
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This doesn’t excuse how difficult you’ve found the process, but it’s because they treat registered devices as “authorised”, so certain actions don’t require a second factor for approval (the second factor is inherence, the fact it’s a registered device).
In order to protect against fraudulent app registrations being used as a vector for fraud by effectively by-passing 2 factor authentication, all banks introduce a delay whereby the app isn’t fully functional if only recently registered. They do this because they alert the user once a new device is registered to their account and give them the opportunity to raise the alarm with the bank if it wasn’t them. If it’s genuine, everything starts working after a few days - and they operate on the principle of “what’s the chance of someone wanting to complete a sensitive action via the app (like changing address) within those few days”. Basically, the chance is viewed as low and you can always complete the action via another “channel” in the meantime (phone or branch) so that’s the logic. There is always an override process, but it’s not a common thing which perhaps explains why it’s sometimes difficult to deal with over the phone.
Barclays are the most up-front about this, as they make it very clear that things like Mobile PINSentry take time to become active.
The exact details of the process are usually deliberately kept secret in order to reduce the chance of anyone successfully reverse-engineering it.
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Great explanation and thank you. I guess I’m used to Monzos one email and you’re in 
What I would say though is that each of the staff I spoke to were super polite and really wanted to solve it rather than take the easy route of “go to branch”.
The last one did and I’m up and running but cant use it till the card arrives.
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Even that is 2 factor, though - email plus card PIN to get back into your account!
They then don’t need to limit access to the app beyond that, arguably, because for sensitive actions they do request a selfie as well.
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Just offering a perspective from the other side. Digital only banks have one channel. That’s more often than not just one app. Monzo allow one app per platform at most. So they have a simple offer which requires simple ID.
Then there is the onboarding, Lloyds were able to onboard you without the need for photo ID.
Lloyds also allow multiple devices, browsers, telephone and branch banking. That flexibility requires 2fa in some form per channel.
Combine all of that and you get a situation when one card falls down it appears to be a mess.
The postal activation code is a the lowest common denominator when you take all the above into consideration.
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