Lloyds TSB Foundation Northern Ireland will shortly decide whether to accept new terms offered by the the Lloyds Banking Group which will see its grant giving considerably reduced in the long term.
All the Foundation's funding is provided by a one per cent share of profits from the bank. The Lloyds Banking Group has been severely affected by the world banking crisis and has had to seek substantial support from the government.
During the summer Lloyds TSB Foundation Northern Ireland announced that it was reducing its top grant level to £5,000 and only considering support for charities with a turnover of under £250,000.
Three of the Lloyds TSB foundations, England & Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, are involved in talks about future funding with Lloyds Banking Group.
Earlier in the month the Lloyds TSB Foundation in Scotland said it was not accepting a new agreement with Lloyds Banking Group and suspended its grants programme. At that time the Foundation in Scotland said that the agreement involves £6 million in funding from 2010 to 2014 but also a permanent reduction in the share of group profits from 1 per cent to 0.5 per cent and the transfer of the authority to decide where money is spent from the foundation to the group.
The Foundation in Scotland says that the new arrangement would amount to "walking away from £22 million over nine years". The banking group has denied that it will interfere in the running of the Foundations.
www.lloydstsbfoundationni.org
