Lloyds trims asset management arm

Lloyds Banking has continued to divest its peripheral businesses with the sale of the Bank of Scotland Portfolio Management Service and two other private client businesses to Rathbone Brothers for £35.4m.The sale follows a detailed review of the group's private client activities, which concluded that these discretionary investment management portfolios were no longer core for the group, Lloyds said. Following the sale approximately 40 role reductions in Edinburgh by the end of 2011, it added.The disposal will mean around 6,000 customers with £1.27bn of funds under management transferring to Rathbones, subject to client consent. Lloyds will still manage £8.5bn of assets for 35,000 affluent and high net worth clients under its Investment Portfolio Management service, which is not part of this transaction. Lloyds and Rathbones have also set up a new arrangement for Rathbones to handle Lloyds clients with £250,000 and £2m in directly held investments.