With HBOS shareholders expected to approve the merger on December 10, Lloyds executives are preparing to announce the "frontline" executives, including those at managing director level, who will lead the combined group.

After announcing its top team, including the new board directors, last month, a second wave of interviews has been under way for the next tier. Susan Rice, chief executive of Lloyds TSB Scotland, and also chairman since succeeding Ewan Brown in May, was due to be interviewed by Helen Weir, executive director of UK retail banking.

It is understood that Lloyds TSB Scotland's semi-independent status within the group will also be examined at some stage. The banking climate is considerably different from that in which it was given some autonomy and its own board of five executive and six non-executive directors after the acquisition of TSB in 1995.

With finances now under pressure, Lloyds' management are likely to take a fresh look at all its banking licences, said a source, as it will have three in Scotland alone.

The bank is also keen to counter continuing rumours over job cuts. Chairman Sir Victor Blank has already described talk of up to 40,000 as "ridiculous" and the bank is believed to think half that number is more realistic. Even so, it could achieve the full number through natural wastage (staff retiring or moving to other jobs), which amounts to 9% to 10% a year.

On a combined workforce of 144,000 that would amount to 35,000 to 40,000 staff leaving over the three-year programme of integration.

The company has had a recruitment freeze since September and some believe it could reduce numbers significantly through non-replacement.

Shareholders in HBOS will gather in Birmingham next month to vote on the takeover by Lloyds TSB and while it is expected to be a fiery meeting, the deal is not thought to be in any serious doubt unless it is stopped by a legal challenge that has resurfaced after being first revealed in October.

Scottish architect Malcolm Fraser, whose firm oversaw the £15m refurbishment of Bank of Scotland's Edinburgh headquarters on The Mound, is leading a campaign supported by financier Peter de Vink and Dan Macdonald, chief executive of Macdonald Estates.

They are taking their case to the Competition Appeals Tribunal, a judicial body that can ask ministers to rethink decisions, or overrule the decision to waive competition rules.

Separately, a number of sponsorship packages are expected to become available as banks are forced to rethink expenditure. RBS sponsors the Six Nations rugby and Formula One, while Lloyds TSB invests in various social and sporting activities, including the Scotland cricket team.

Paul Walsh, chief executive of drinks giant Diageo, says in an interview with Scotland on Sunday today that he is eyeing possible sponsorship opportunities that may arise from the banking crisis.