HBOS employ branch footprint increase to address market share.  At £1 million per branch, these must be pretty spiffy branches they are considering here.

Banking, finance, insurance The Times Times Online Sunday Times

HBOS, Britain’s fourth-biggest bank, yesterday pledged to spend £100 million opening 100 Halifax branches over the next five years in the South of England, as part of its drive to increase its market share.

The group said that the move, which represents the biggest network expansion by the Halifax since the 1970s, creating an estimated 1,500 jobs, would help it to achieve its target market share of between 15 and 20 per cent in core activities such as current and savings accounts.

They are going into markets that HBOS is not currently represented, for half of them, with the others relocating and replacing existing branches.  Those 50 net new locations must quickly absorb new business to get a decent ROI.  they currently have 1,000 branches in the UK, so this represents a 5% increase in branch footprint.

Fifty of the branches will be in towns where there has been little or no Halifax presence and the other 50 will be existing branches moving to bigger, improved locations.

I hope they are employing other tactics to support their desire to improve market share, because  in 5 years, it will be 2011, and the attraction for deposits will steadily broaden to other channels.  However its still a safe bet, that if you can afford it, branches will acquire customers.  The key is to ensure you retain those customers.