LONDON, July 9, 2026, 14:03 BST
- Charlie Nunn urged consumers to automate savings, talk more openly about money and pause before sending cash online.
- The message lands as UK regulators push major banks to improve access for financially vulnerable customers.
- Lloyds is also leaning on fraud tools and digital banking ahead of a July strategy update.
Lloyds Banking Group Chief Executive Charlie Nunn has urged British households to build savings automatically and slow down before making online payments, warning that scams and social-media investment tips are now part of the everyday money risk facing consumers.
Nunn’s remarks put the head of one of Britain’s biggest retail lenders into a debate that has moved beyond interest rates. Households are still trying to rebuild buffers after years of high living costs, while banks are under pressure to make basic services easier to reach for people with thin finances or weak documentation.
In an interview published by the BBC, Nunn set out five money rules: automate savings, talk about money in relationships, teach children with pocket money, pause before buying online, and beware “finfluencers” — social-media personalities who give financial tips, sometimes while being paid to promote risky products. He advised people who can afford it to build an emergency fund of one to three months’ salary and summed up the habit as “saving little, saving early and saving regularly.” MyJoyOnline
The fraud warning fits with Lloyds’ own recent push. The bank said last month it would launch Scam Check, an artificial intelligence tool — software that scans patterns and warning signs — that asks customers for details and screenshots when a new online purchase looks risky. Lloyds said it stopped more than £1 billion of attempted fraud in 2025 and that about 68% of shopping-scam reports from its customers started on Meta platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp.
Liz Ziegler, Lloyds’ fraud prevention director, said scams were becoming more “emotionally manipulative” and that the tool was designed to step in before money left an account. That is the gap banks now want to close: catching the payment while the customer is still hesitating, not after the transfer has gone.
There is also a conduct issue here. The Financial Conduct Authority said this week that nine major banks and building societies, including Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and NatWest, had agreed to improve how they offer basic bank accounts. A basic bank account is a no-fee, no-overdraft account for people who may not qualify for a standard current account. The FCA said a mystery-shopping exercise found 20% of interactions were poor and 14% very poor.
“Bank accounts are important for financial inclusion,” Emad Aladhal, the FCA’s director of retail banking, said, adding that the regulator would hold firms to account. UK Finance’s Peter Tyler said a basic account could be “an important first step” towards financial independence.
For Lloyds, the consumer-money message is also commercial. Its first-quarter figures showed statutory profit after tax of £1.6 billion, net income of £4.8 billion and a banking net interest margin of 3.17%. Net interest margin is the spread a bank earns between what it receives on lending and what it pays to fund deposits and other liabilities. Retail UK savings fell £3.1 billion in the quarter, while personal current accounts rose £0.6 billion.
Nunn has been running Lloyds since August 2021 after senior roles at HSBC and earlier work at Accenture and McKinsey. The group is due to publish half-year results and a strategy update on July 30, giving investors a closer look at how far it will push digital banking, fraud prevention and savings products in the next phase. Lloyds Banking Group
But the advice has limits. Automated saving is hard when there is no spare cash, and fraud tools only work if customers pause long enough to use them. The FCA’s findings also show a more awkward risk for banks: digital journeys can be efficient for many customers, yet still fail people who need a branch, a phone call or a simpler account.
