FACTBOX: Key facts on LloydsTSB and HBOS

LONDON (Reuters) - British bank Lloyds TSB is in advanced talks to buy domestic rival HBOS Plc to create a 28 billion pound ($50 billion) mortgage giant.

Here are some facts about the two banks:

LLOYDS TSB:

--Lloyds TSB was formed in 1995 from the merger of Lloyds Bank and TSB Group and is the fifth-biggest listed bank in Britain by market value, with a market capitalization of almost 18 billion pounds.

--It has 70,000 employees and 1,900 branches in Britain, with 16 million customers.

--It is split into three businesses: UK retail banking; insurance and investments; and wholesale and international banking.

--Lloyds is the fourth-biggest mortgage provider with an 8.4 percent share of the market. It is the largest provider of current accounts with over 12.5 million customers.

--Lloyds is led by chairman Victor Blank and its American Chief Executive Eric Daniels. Blank is a lawyer turned dealmaker, who advised on some of the biggest takeovers of the 1980s.

--Lloyds Bank was set up in 1765 by John Taylor and Sampson Lloyd as a private banking business in Birmingham, UK. The group expanded across the UK and overseas and by the early 1990s it had offices in 30 countries. It acquired Cheltenham & Gloucester months before its merger with TSB Group.

--Lloyds became Britain's most profitable bank and a darling of the stock market in the 1990s after takeovers, cost efficiency and massive returns for investors.

--In July 2001 the government blocked Lloyds from buying mortgage bank Abbey National for 18.5 billion pound on competition grounds, signaling it would need to look overseas for acquisitions.

--Lloyds sold the bulk of its international operations in 2003/04.

--Last year the bank considered a rescue of troubled UK lender Northern Rock and more recently considered a big acquisition in Germany.

--It has suffered an estimated $2.6 billion of credit-related writedowns and losses since the credit crunch began last year, less than UK peers.

HBOS:

--HBOS is the sixth-biggest bank in Britain with a market value of about 10 billion pounds. It is the largest mortgage provider with a 20 percent market share.