Introducing the Create service, Peter Ellwood, group chief executive, Lloyds TSB, says: "This expansion of our wealth management service is central to our overall revenue growth strategy and we aim to double profits from this market in four years from launch."

Create will be aimed at the new mass affluent market, which Lloyds defines as people earning over £60,000 or with liquid assets of £100,000 or more. The banks says it expects to have around 250,000 clients by the end of 2002.

Lloyds TSB's existing private banking service is predominantly an asset management service and has 40,000 clients. The bank currently makes some £300 million per annum pre tax profit from wealth management and believes that this can be doubled within four years of Create's full market launch this summer.

The UK's 'wealthy' population is growing fast. Research shows that the number of individuals with assets over £50,000 is expected to grow by 10 per cent per annum between 1997 and 2004 and the value of their assets is forecast to increase by 14 per cent year on year over the same period. A significant shift, over the last few years, from inherited to earned wealth has also been identified.

Central to the Create service will be a new cash management account which allows the automatic sweep from one product to another and provides a single statement incorporating details of all of the client's finances. The service will also feature an online financial market, providing a one-stop source of stocks, funds and financial information. This will also be made available to clients who do not meet the typical Create income and asset criteria, says the bank.

Create account holders additionally will be offered a choice of style of investment/financial advice with four clear offers ranging from tailored portfolio management to active involvement in decision making, supported by seven dedicated investment centres and over 300 specially trained Relationship Managers.

The Create service will be underpinned by access to Goldman Sachs PrimeAccess, which will provide clients with customised proprietary research, international equity dealing and market-making, custody and settlement and access to selected equity capital market offerings lead managed by Goldman Sachs.

Laurel Powers-Freeling, managing director, wealth management, Lloyds TSB, says: "Create will have the independence, depth, scale and quality to deliver genuinely tailor-made services to each and every affluent individual."