Lombard Vehicle Management is to be wound
down, with ALD Automotive announced as provider of contract hire
and fleet management products for Lombard in future.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which
categorised its fleet subsidiary as non-core in June 2009, will
write no new fleet business under the LVM brand.

A five-year agreement between RBS and ALD will
see the French giant provide service to existing LVM customers
until existing contracts to come to term within the next three
years.

Furthermore, from July 2012 ALD will begin to
write new business introduced under the Lombard brand.

A spokesman for RBS said: “Having to cut jobs
is the most difficult part of our work to rebuild RBS. The decision
to close Lombard Vehicle Management was a difficult one but is a
necessary step in our plan to de-risk and re-focus RBS, making the
bank safer and stronger.

“We will do all we can to support our staff,
offer redeployment opportunities wherever possible, and keep
compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum.”

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An exact launch date for the partnership is
still to be confirmed but it is anticipated the scheme will go live
in June or July this year. ALD, currently the sixth largest fleet
business in the UK, with Lombard VM ranked fifth, anticipates it
will fund over 30,000 new vehicle contracts over the next five
years.

Keith Allen, managing director of ALD
Automotive, said: “We’re delighted that RBS and Lombard have chosen
ALD to provide contract hire and fleet management solutions for
Lombard.

“The new proposition will have access to all
the vehicle leasing business generated through RBS banking and
Lombard relationships, reinforcing the success of the multi-sales
channel strategy we have adopted to grow our business and driving
the business further forward to become a top three player within
the UK leasing industry.”

ALD Automotive has a global fleet of 900,000
vehicles and its UK fleet, which stands at over 73,000 vehicles,
has seen annual growth of 20% over the past two years.

fred.crawley@vrlfinancialnews.com