Lloyds Banking Group will refer affluent clients to Rathbones for five years as part of a deal sealed today to sell part of its wealth management operations, which the state-owned UK lender has deemed "no longer core" to its business.

Lloyds today confirmed in a statement that it would sell the client portfolio of the Bank of Scotland Portfolio Management Service to wealth manager Rathbones. Under the terms of the deal, two directly-invested private client portfolios of a similar service within Lloyds' private banking business will also be sold.