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104-474: To keep track of imports and exports of several of the most dangerous armament categories, the United Nations , in 1991, created a Register for Conventional Arms. Participation, however, is not compulsory, and lacks comprehensive data in regions outside of Europe. Africa , due to a prevalence of corrupt officials and loosely enforced trade regulations, is a region with extensive illicit arms activity. In

208-407: A commercial industry involved in the research and development , engineering , production, and servicing of military material, equipment, and facilities. Many industrialized countries have a domestic arms industry to supply their own military forces, and some also have a substantial trade in weapons for use by their citizens for self-defense, hunting, or sporting purposes. Contracts to supply

312-501: A High Court case began which in the following April ruled against the banks, on 5 May 2011 Lloyds withdrew from the legal challenge. In 2012, Lloyds announced that they had set aside £3.6 billion to cover the cost of compensating customers who were mis-sold PPI. In March 2014 it was reported that Lloyds had been reducing the compensation they offered by using a regulatory provision called "alternative redress" to assume that customers wrongly sold single-premium PPI policies would have bought

416-607: A broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a tactical, strategic, material, or mental advantage over an adversary or enemy target. While ordinary objects such as sticks , rocks , bottles , chairs , and vehicles can be used as weapons , many objects are expressly designed for the purpose; these range from simple implements such as clubs , axes , spears , and swords to complicated modern firearms , tanks , intercontinental ballistic missiles , biological weapons , and cyberweapons . Something that has been repurposed, converted, or enhanced to become

520-623: A cheaper, regular premium PPI policy instead. In June 2015 the Lloyds Banking Group was fined £117m for mishandling payment protection insurance claims including many claims being "unfairly rejected". In December 2008 the British anti-poverty charity War on Want released a report documenting the extent to which the UK high street banks invest in, provide banking services for and lend to arms companies. The report stated that Lloyds TSB

624-662: A corridor for arms trafficking into the New York City Metro Area. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Confederacy lacked the financial and manufacturing capacity to wage war against the industrial and prosperous North . The Union Navy was enforcing the blockade along 3,500 miles of coast in the Southeast and Gulf of Mexico to prevent the smuggling of any material from or into

728-486: A diplomatic fallout, a move that led to the released crew joining another blockade-running expedition. Ulysses S. Grant III , President of the American Civil War Centennial in 1961, remarked for example: [B]etween October 26, 1864 and January 1865, it was still possible for 8,632,000 lbs of meat, 1,507,000 lbs of lead, 1,933,000 lbs of saltpeter, 546,000 pairs of shoes, 316,000 blankets, half

832-825: A generic term for an ATM in the United Kingdom. In 1982 Lloyds decided to follow Provident Financial Group plc in entering the estate agency market with the acquisition of the Norfolk firm of Charles Hawkins and Son in May of that year to form Black Horse Agencies. The firm had been first established in 1869 in Downham Market by Charles Hawkins who was land agent for the Pratt estate at Ryston. The firm merged in 1875 with that of Cruso and Son forming Cruso and Hawkins, later becoming Charles Hawkins and Son in 1908. Under

936-405: A given country's military are awarded by governments, making arms contracts of substantial political importance. The link between politics and the arms trade can result in the development of a " military–industrial complex ", where the armed forces, commerce, and politics become closely linked. According to research institute SIPRI, the volume of international transfers of major weapons in 2010–2014

1040-523: A lack of co-operation between nations, especially in Africa and ex-Soviet states. In the international criminal scholarly community, rational choice theory is commonly referenced in explanations as to why individuals engage in and justify criminal activity. According to Jana Arsovska and Panos Kostakos, leading scholars on organized crime , the causes of arms trafficking are not solely based on rational choice theory but rather have been more closely linked to

1144-445: A landing strip for both importation and exportation. Additionally, warehouses are needed to "store product awaiting delivery". Once the product has arrived and been stored it needs to be delivered to the customer, thus, the headquarters should be in somewhat of a central location near each customer. While not the primary reason traffickers choose Africa, it has multitudes of unoccupied land that can be used by traffickers, as

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1248-551: A million pounds of coffee, 69,000 rifles, and 43 cannon to run the blockade into the port of Wilmington alone, while cotton sufficient to pay for these purchases was exported[. I]t is evident that the blockade runners made an important contribution to the Confederate effort to carry on. During the Mexican Revolution , gunrunning into Mexico reached rampant levels with the majority of the arms being smuggled from

1352-466: A number of issues around the potential ongoing risks from deployed weapons, the safe storage of weapons, and their eventual disposal when they are no longer effective or safe. Strange and exotic weapons are a recurring feature or theme in science fiction . In some cases, weapons first introduced in science fiction have now become a reality. Other science fiction weapons, such as force fields and stasis fields , remain purely fictional and are often beyond

1456-732: A private banking business in Dale End, Birmingham . The first branch office opened in Oldbury , some six miles (10 km) west of Birmingham, in 1864. The association with the Taylor family ended in 1852 and, in 1865, Lloyds & Co. converted into a joint-stock company known as Lloyds Banking Company Ltd. The first report of the company in 1865 stated: LLOYDS BANKING COMPANY LIMITED – Authorized Capital £2,000,000. FOUNDED ON The Private Banks of Messrs. Lloyds & Co. and Messrs. Moilliet and Sons, with-which have subsequently been amalgamated with

1560-1146: A resolution to complement the Register with legally binding obligations, a Firearms Protocol was incorporated into the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, which requires states to improve systems that control trafficked ammunition and firearms. The 1999 Report of the UN Panel of Governmental Experts on Small Arms provides a more refined and precise definition, which has become internationally accepted. This distinguishes between small arms ( revolvers and self-loading pistols , rifles and carbines , submachine guns , assault rifles , and light machine guns ), which are weapons designed for personal use, and light weapons ( heavy machine guns , hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers , portable anti-aircraft guns , portable anti-tank guns, recoilless rifles , portable launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems, and mortars of calibres less than 100 mm), which are designed for use by several persons serving as

1664-541: A separate division within Lloyds Banking Group. TSB was floated on the London Stock Exchange on 20 June 2014, and was acquired by Banco Sabadell one year later and subsequently delisted. The remaining business of Lloyds TSB returned to the Lloyds Bank name on 23 September 2013. In October 2014, the bank announced that it planned to cut 9,000 jobs and close some branches in light of an increase in

1768-407: A significant role in this conflict. Weapons of all sorts were shipped to all sides in both Sierra Leone , and Liberia from abroad. These included small arms , such as, pistols , assault rifles , grenades, Claymores , knives, machetes, etc. Larger weapons such as missiles, light machine guns, mortars, anti-tank missiles, tanks, and planes were also used. During this time a civil war

1872-553: A theme when it touches on deeper concerns, often motivated by contemporary issues. One example is science fiction that deals with weapons of mass destruction like doomsday devices . Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales . It has traditionally been regarded one of the " Big Four " clearing banks . Established in Birmingham in 1765, Lloyds Bank expanded considerably during

1976-460: A unit. Ammunition and explosives also form an integral part of small arms and light weapons used in conflict. Although arms trafficking is widespread in regions of political turmoil, it is not limited to such areas, and for example, in South Asia , an estimated 63 million guns have been trafficked into India and Pakistan . The suppression of gunrunning is one of the areas of interest in

2080-474: A weapon of war is termed weaponized , such as a weaponized virus or weaponized laser . The use of weapons has been a major driver of cultural evolution and human history up to today since weapons are a type of tool that is used to dominate and subdue autonomous agents such as animals and, by doing so, allow for an expansion of the cultural niche, while simultaneously other weapon users (i.e., agents such as humans, groups, and cultures) are able to adapt to

2184-617: A worldwide crusade in the 1920s. Poison gas did not win battles, and the generals did not want it. The soldiers hated it far more intensely than bullets or explosive shells. By 1918, chemical shells made up 35 percent of French ammunition supplies, 25 percent of British, and 20 percent of American stock. The “Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous, or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare”, also known as

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2288-407: Is asserted by Thachuk and Saunders. Physical space is important but the rules and regulations of said space are also relevant. Traffickers look for places with corrupt, supply side, officials that can either be bribed, or blackmailed. This allows the trafficker to "circumvent the regulatory and oversight systems" put in place by the government. Furthermore, a "lax financial system"

2392-580: Is held ex-officio by the chairman and chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group. In November 2005 an investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) highlighted a lack of compliance controls surrounding payment protection insurance (PPI). A second investigation in October 2006 identified further evidence of poor compliance and major PPI providers including Lloyds were fined for not treating customers fairly. In January 2011

2496-545: Is key so the large amounts of money moved by the trafficker are not seen as suspicious. Thachuk and Saunders finish their argument, a stable, and highly centralized government, is important. They then point out that 10 different African countries have leaders that have been in power for more than 20 years, which they argue meets the criteria of a highly centralized and stable government. Since 1996, countries throughout Europe have taken notice of arms trafficking. Europe has been an overall large exporter of illicit weapons with

2600-519: Is known about the very secretive arms dealers supplying the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by Riek Machar other than that the majority of the gunrunners appeared to be European. A rare exception was with the Franco-Polish arms dealer Pierre Dadak who was arrested on 14 July 2016 at his villa in Ibiza on charges of gunrunning into South Sudan. At his villa,

2704-521: Is no different from any other illegal business in their work Under the Radar: Airborne Arms Trafficking Operations in Africa . Traffickers first need a headquarters, or somewhere to base their operations. A headquarters needs several aspects to make it an ideal place to traffic weapons. First, the headquarters should have appropriate infrastructure. For a weapons trafficking this would include

2808-562: Is the only high street bank whose corporate social responsibility policy does not mention the arms industry , yet is that industry's second-largest shareholder among high street banks. In 2009, the BBC 's Panorama alleged that Lloyds TSB Offshore in Jersey, Channel Islands was encouraging wealthy customers to evade tax. An employee of Lloyds was filmed telling a customer how several mechanisms could be used to make their transactions invisible to

2912-436: Is the trafficking of contraband weapons and ammunition . What constitutes legal trade in firearms varies widely, depending on local and national laws. In 2001, the United Nations had made a protocol against the manufacturing and trafficking of illicit arms. This protocol made governments dispose illegal arms, and to licence new firearms being produced, to ensure them being legitimate. It was signed by 122 parties. There are

3016-458: The 2012 Summer Olympics in London. After the 2008 rescue of HBOS, Lloyds TSB Group was renamed Lloyds Banking Group. In 2009, following the liquidity crisis , HM Government took a 43.4% stake in Lloyds Banking Group. The European Commission ruled that the group must sell a portion of its business by November 2013, as it categorised the stake purchase as state aid . On 24 April 2013, it

3120-531: The Dark web in the United States can cost as much as $ 3,600, as the price of illegal arms is increased greatly by the distance it must travel, due to the induced risk. A handgun trafficked from the United States to Canada can have its price increase by 560% from just crossing the border. Weapons smuggled overseas will usually take several, short trips with multiple companies to mask the country of origin and

3224-467: The Geneva Protocol , was issued in 1925 and was accepted as policy by all major countries. In 1937, poison gas was manufactured in large quantities but not used except against nations that lacked modern weapons or gas masks. Many modern military weapons, particularly ground-based ones, are relatively minor improvements to weapon systems developed during World War II. World War II marked perhaps

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3328-548: The Schöningen spears , eight wooden throwing spears dating back more than 300,000 years. At the site of Nataruk in Turkana, Kenya, numerous human skeletons dating to 10,000 years ago may present evidence of traumatic injuries to the head, neck, ribs, knees, and hands, including obsidian projectiles embedded in the bones that might have been caused by arrows and clubs during conflict between two hunter-gatherer groups. But

3432-512: The arquebus were much more powerful than human-powered weapons. Firearms became increasingly important and effective during the 16th–19th centuries, with progressive improvements in ignition mechanisms followed by revolutionary changes in ammunition handling and propellant. During the American Civil War , new applications of firearms, including the machine gun and ironclad warship , emerged that would still be recognizable and useful military weapons today, particularly in limited conflicts . In

3536-638: The attack , demanding around £75,000 from the bank in a "consultation fee". The bank offers a full range of banking and financial services, through a network of 1,300 branches in England and Wales. Branches in Jersey , Guernsey and the Isle of Man are operated by Lloyds Bank International Limited, while Lloyds Bank (Gibraltar) Limited operates in Gibraltar ; both are wholly owned subsidiaries and trade under

3640-585: The trireme , were in use by the 7th century BC. During the first First Punic War , the use of advanced warships contributed to a Roman victory over the Carthaginians. European warfare during post-classical history was dominated by elite groups of knights supported by massed infantry (both in combat and ranged roles). They were involved in mobile combat and sieges , which involved various siege weapons and tactics. Knights on horseback developed tactics for charging with lances , providing an impact on

3744-564: The "taken-for-granted cultural practice of carrying a handgun," increases illicit SALW because guns are viewed as a way to enhance masculinity and status. In 2000, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) started on regional solutions and security measures to address the firearms trafficking problem. Though one of the least profitable illegal trades, arms trafficking made an estimated $ 1.7-3.5 billion in 2014, making it

3848-400: The 1900s. Uniform buttons featuring a black horse with small beehives engraved around it were manufactured in the 1930s. The black horse regardant device dates from 1677, when Humphrey Stokes adopted it as a sign for his shop. The reason why Stokes chose this horse is unknown, though it may have been a family crest because the black horse is heraldically posed in ' rampant regardant '. Stokes

3952-883: The 19th and 20th centuries, acquiring several smaller banks along the way. It merged with the Trustee Savings Bank in 1995 and operated as Lloyds TSB Bank plc from 1999 to 2013. In January 2009, it became a key subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group following the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB Group. The bank's operational headquarters are in London , with additional offices in Wales and Scotland , and it also manages office complexes, brand headquarters, and data centres in Birmingham , Yorkshire , Leeds , Sheffield , Halifax , and Wolverhampton . The origins of Lloyds Bank date from 1765, when button maker John Taylor and Quaker iron producer and dealer Sampson Lloyd set up

4056-409: The 19th century, warship propulsion changed from sail power to fossil fuel -powered steam engines . Since the mid-18th century North American French-Indian war through the beginning of the 20th century, human-powered weapons were reduced from the primary weaponry of the battlefield to yielding gunpowder-based weaponry. Sometimes referred to as the "Age of Rifles", this period was characterized by

4160-569: The 4th century BC. Cavalry developed once horses were bred to support the weight of a human. The horse extended the range and increased the speed of attacks. Alexander's conquest saw the increased use of spears and shields in the Middle East and Western Asia as a result Greek culture spread which saw many Greek and other European weapons be used in these regions and as a result many of these weapons were adapted to fit their new use in war In addition to land-based weaponry, warships , such as

4264-508: The 9th largest criminal market, which was valued at $ 1.6-2.2 trillion. The AK-47 is one of the most appealing weapons in the illegal weapons trade due to its low cost and reliability. In Iraq, a smuggled AK-47 typically costs $ 150–300. In the first sixth months of the 2003 invasion of Iraq , the influx of new weapons lowered the AK-47's price, to the point the weapon was sold for as low as $ 25, or sometimes, nothing. Comparatively, AK-47s sold on

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4368-527: The Banks of Messrs. P. H. Williams, Wednesbury, and Messrs.Stevenson, Salt, & Co., Stafford and Lichfield. [They had an office at 20 Lombard St., London] Your Directors have the satisfaction to report that they have concluded an agreement with the well-known and old-established firm of Messrs. Stevenson, Salt & Company for the amalgamation with this Company of their Banking Business at Stafford, Lichfield, Rugeley, and Eccleshall, and that this agreement has had

4472-642: The Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are also persistent reports and public accusations of shipments to forces affiliated with the leadership in Juba from further afield, specifically from Egypt". The same report stated that a Ukrainian Air Force IL-76 transport jet flew in two L-39 jets to Uganda on 27 January 2017 in the full knowledge the L-39 jets were intended to go on to South Sudan, thereby violating

4576-643: The FCA said. Lloyds Bank has accepted the regulator's findings and apologised to its customers. Based on figures from the National Audit Office , George Osborne 's sale of a 6% tranche of Lloyds shares in autumn 2013—despite his claims that the sale had netted a profit—worked out at a loss of at least £230m for UK taxpayers. However, after the British Government confirmed all its remaining shares had been sold on 17 May 2017, Lloyds Bank said

4680-957: The Lloyds Bank brand. Lloyds Bank is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. It is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service , the Financial Services Compensation Scheme , UK Payments Administration , the British Bankers' Association and subscribes to the Lending Code . The bank uses

4784-536: The London and Brazilian Bank, financed coffee plantations in Brazil which operated on slave labour , and mortgages on these plantations were sometimes secured using the monetary value of the enslaved people as collateral. In 1968, an attempt to merge with Barclays and Martins Bank failed because the Monopolies and Mergers Commission deemed it to be against the public interest. Barclays finally acquired Martins

4888-730: The RUF in exchange for diamonds. President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore , "directly facilitated Liberia's arms-for-diamonds trade" with Liberia and Sierra Leone. Compaore would give guns to Taylor, who would then sell them to the RUF in exchange for diamonds. These blood diamonds would then be sold back to Compaore for more guns. The cyclical exchange allowed Compaore the ability to deny directly sending arms to Sierra Leone. The Liberian government received arms through an elaborate front company in Guinea . The arms were intended to be shipped (legally) from Uganda to Slovakia . However,

4992-638: The South by blockade runners carrying British supplies were easily facilitated using ports in the British colonies of Canada and the Bahamas , where the Union Navy could not enter. A British publication in 1862 summed up the country's involvement in blockade running: Score after score of the finest, swiftest British steamers and ships, loaded with British material of war of every description, cannon, rifles by

5096-698: The South. In order to increase its arsenal, the Confederacy looked to Britain as a major source of arms. British merchants and bankers funded the purchase of arms and construction of ships being outfitted as blockade runners which later carried war supplies bound for Southern ports. The chief figures for these acts were Confederate foreign agents James Dunwoody Bulloch and Charles K. Prioleau and Fraser, Trenholm and Co. based in Liverpool , England and merchants in Glasgow , Scotland. The smuggling of arms into

5200-656: The Spanish National Police Corps allege that they found documents showing he was negotiating to sell Machar 40,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 30,000 PKM machine guns and 200,000 boxes of ammunition. The United Nations Panel of Experts on South Sudan in a 2017 report declared: "Reports from independent sources indicate that the border areas between South Sudan and the Sudan and Uganda remain key entry points for arms, with some unsubstantiated reports of smaller numbers of weapons also crossing into South Sudan from

5304-486: The UK tax authorities. This action is also in breach of money laundering regulations in Jersey. In December 2013, Lloyds Banking Group had been fined £28m for "serious failings" in relation to bonus schemes for sales staff. The Financial Conduct Authority said it was the largest fine that it or the former Financial Services Authority had imposed for retail conduct failings. The bonus scheme pressured staff to hit sales targets or risk being demoted and have their pay cut,

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5408-560: The United Kingdom, Germany, and France in the national lead for the most exports. Imports to Europe from 2004 to 2013 have decreased by 25%, with the United Kingdom importing the most overall in Europe. The firearms that are imported and passed around are commonly small arms and lighter weapons ( SALW ) compared to large machinery, such as tanks and aircraft . The SALW bought in Europe tends to be secondhand weapons that are cheap and regularly available. Gun cultures, such as in Germany, where

5512-438: The United States of America. Lloyds Bank International was absorbed into the main business of Lloyds Bank in 1986. Since 2010, the name has been used to refer to the bank's offshore banking operations. The following list indicates the chairmen and chief executives from the incorporation of Lloyds Banking Corporation in 1865 and the creation of the chief executive position in 1945. The chairman and chief executive of Lloyds Bank

5616-421: The United States. As Mexico manufactured no weapons of its own, acquiring arms and ammunition were one of the main concerns of the various rebels, intent on armed revolution. Under American law at the time, arms smugglers into Mexico could be prosecuted only if one was caught in flagrante delicto crossing the border as merely buying arms with the intention of gunrunning into Mexico was not a criminal offense. Given

5720-536: The arms embargo Ukraine had placed on arms sales to South Sudan. In 2018, the United Nations Security Council imposed a worldwide arms embargo on South Sudan, but the embargo has been widely ignored where despite a ceasefire signed the same year, both sides have continued to import arms on a massive scale, suggesting that they are preparing for another bout of the civil war. Kimberly Thachuk and Karen Saunders argue that arms trafficking

5824-1023: The arms were diverted to Guinea as a part of "an elaborate bait and switch". Additionally the British government "encouraged Sandline International , a private security firm and non state entity, to supply arms and ammunitions to the loyal forces of the exiled government of President Kabbah." Sandline proceeded 35 tons of arms from Bulgaria, to Kabbah's forces. Ever since the South Sudanese civil war began in December 2013, gunrunning into that nation has reached rampant levels. As South Sudan has hardly any electricity and no manufacturing, both sides were entirely dependent upon buying arms from abroad to fight their war. President Salva Kiir Mayardit used shadowy networks of arms dealers from China, Uganda, Israel, Egypt and Ukraine to arm his forces. As oil companies paid rent for their concessions in South Sudan,

5928-579: The beehive was dropped. During this period, other symbols were used; for example, the liver bird , which was retained from the Liverpool Union Bank when it was taken over in 1900. Since 1975, real black horses have been featured in Lloyds' television adverts, including Cancara . Through a series of mergers, including Cunliffe, Brooks in 1900, the Wilts. and Dorset Bank in 1914 and, by far

6032-442: The beginning of the implementation of firearms in western warfare. Guns and rockets were introduced to the battlefield. Firearms are qualitatively different from earlier weapons because they release energy from combustible propellants , such as gunpowder , rather than from a counterweight or spring. This energy is released very rapidly and can be replicated without much effort by the user. Therefore, even early firearms such as

6136-501: The bid was blocked by the Competition Commission , who ruled that a merger would be against the public interest. In October 2011, Lloyds TSB's credit rating was reduced by Moody's from Aa3 to A1. The action was taken in the light of a shift in government policy to move risk from taxpayers to creditors by reducing the level of support offered to financial institutions. Lloyds TSB was the first Official Partner for

6240-476: The context of international law . In the United Nations, there has been widespread support to implement international legislation to prevent arms trafficking, however, it has been difficult to implement, due to many different factors that allow for arms trafficking to occur. In the United States, the term " Iron Pipeline " is sometimes used to describe Interstate Highway 95 and its connector highways as

6344-498: The development of ancient weapons. It was not the introduction of early Iron Age swords , however, as they were not superior to their bronze predecessors, but rather the domestication of the horse and widespread use of spoked wheels by c.  2000 BC . This led to the creation of the light, horse-drawn chariot , whose improved mobility proved important during this era. Spoke-wheeled chariot usage peaked around 1300 BC and then declined, ceasing to be militarily relevant by

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6448-426: The development of firearms for infantry and cannons for support, as well as the beginnings of mechanized weapons such as the machine gun . Artillery pieces such as howitzers were able to destroy masonry fortresses and other fortifications, and this single invention caused a revolution in military affairs , establishing tactics and doctrine that are still in use today. An important feature of industrial age warfare

6552-428: The development, production, stockpiling, proliferation, and usage of weapons, from small arms and heavy weapons to weapons of mass destruction . Arms control is typically exercised through the use of diplomacy, which seeks to impose such limitations upon consenting participants, although it may also comprise efforts by a nation or group of nations to enforce limitations upon a non-consenting country. Arms trafficking

6656-409: The end of this period revolutionized warfare. Formations of musketeers , protected by pikemen , came to dominate open battles, and the cannon replaced the trebuchet as the dominant siege weapon . The Ottoman used the cannon to destroy much of the fortifications at Constantinople which would change warfare as gunpowder became more available and technology improved The European Renaissance marked

6760-652: The enemy formations, and then drawing more practical weapons (such as swords ) once they entered melee. By contrast, infantry, in the age before structured formations, relied on cheap, sturdy weapons such as spears and billhooks in close combat and bows from a distance. As armies became more professional, their equipment was standardized, and infantry transitioned to pikes . Pikes are normally seven to eight feet in length and used in conjunction with smaller sidearms (short swords). In Eastern and Middle Eastern warfare, similar tactics were developed independent of European influences. The introduction of gunpowder from Asia at

6864-464: The following series of sort codes :— The Lloyds Bank Foundation funds local, regional and national charities working to tackle disadvantage across England and Wales. There are separate foundations covering Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. The bank's overseas expansion began in 1911 and, by 1985, it had banking and representative offices in 45 countries, from Argentina to

6968-672: The following year. In 1972, Lloyds Bank was a founding member of the Joint Credit Card Company (with National Westminster Bank , Midland Bank and the National and Commercial Banking Group ) which launched the Access credit card (now MasterCard ). That same year it introduced Cashpoint , the first online cash machine to use plastic cards with a magnetic stripe. In popular use, the Cashpoint trademark has become

7072-479: The government for $ 43 million three Mi-24 attack helicopters and two L-39 jets together with the services of Hungarian mercenary pilots to operate the aircraft. The majority of the arms supplied to South Sudan from Uganda originated from Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, all which are members of the European Union (EU), and were supposed to abide by an EU arms embargo placed on South Sudan in 2011.   Less

7176-444: The government had seen a return of £21.2bil on its investment, an approximately £900m profit. In July 2014, US and UK regulators imposed a combined £218 million ($ 370 million) in fines on Lloyds and a number of subsidiaries over the bank's part in the global Libor rate-fixing scandal , and other rate manipulations and false reporting. A number of phishing email scams have been engineered in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 into making

7280-691: The government was able to afford to buy arms on a lavish scale. In June 2014, the government's National Security Service signed a deal worth $ 264 million US dollars with a Seychelles-based shell company to buy 30 tanks, 50,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 20 million bullets. The owner of the shell company currently remains unknown. In July 2014, the Chinese arms manufacturer Norinco delivered a shipment to South Sudan of 95,000 assault rifles and 20 million rounds of ammunition, supplying enough bullets to kill every person in South Sudan twice over. The American arms dealer and private military contractor, Erik Prince , sold to

7384-416: The group in 1996, absorbing Hill Samuel in 1997, before closing to a new business in 2000. In 2007, Abbey Life was sold to Deutsche Bank for £977 million. In 1999, the group agreed to buy the Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society for £7 billion. The society demutualised in 2000, shortly before the acquisition was completed. In 2001, Lloyds TSB made a bid to acquire Abbey National ; however,

7488-409: The hundreds of thousand, powder by the thousand of tons, shot, shell, cartridges, swords, etc, with cargo after cargo of clothes, boots, shoes, blankets, medicines and supplies of every kind, all paid for by British money, at the sole risk of British adventurers, well insured by Lloyds and under the protection of the British flag, have been sent across the ocean to the insurgents by British agency. It

7592-470: The interpretation of warfare at Nataruk has been challenged due to conflicting evidence. The earliest ancient weapons were evolutionary improvements of late Neolithic implements, but significant improvements in materials and crafting techniques led to a series of revolutions in military technology . The development of metal tools began with copper during the Copper Age (about 3,300 BC) and

7696-476: The interwar period (between WWI and WWII) with the continuous evolution of weapon systems by all major industrial powers. The major armament firms were Schneider-Creusot (based in France), Škoda Works (Czechoslovakia), and Vickers (Great Britain). The 1920s were committed to disarmament and the outlawing of war and poison gas, but rearmament picked up rapidly in the 1930s. The munitions makers responded nimbly to

7800-466: The intimacy of one's personal social networks as well as the "perception of risks, effort and rewards in violating criminal laws." Armament A weapon , arm , or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill . Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting , crime (e.g., murder ), law enforcement , self-defense , warfare , or suicide . In

7904-662: The largest, the Capital and Counties Bank in 1918, Lloyds emerged to become one of the "Big Four" clearing banks in the United Kingdom. By 1923, Lloyds Bank had made some 50 takeovers, one of which was the last private firm to issue its own banknotes— Fox, Fowler and Company of Wellington, Somerset. Today, the Bank of England has a monopoly of banknote issue in England and Wales. In 2011, the company founded SGH Martineau LLP. Eleven banks bought by Lloyds Bank between 1865 and 1923 had been involved in slavery to some degree. One of these,

8008-579: The leadership of Sir Brian Pitman between 1984 and 1997, the bank became an early adopter of shareholder value creation as a governing corporate objective. The bank's business focus was narrowed and it reacted to disastrous lending to South American states by trimming its overseas businesses and seeking growth through mergers with other UK banks. During this period, Pitman tried unsuccessfully to acquire The Royal Bank of Scotland in 1984, Standard Chartered in 1986, and Midland Bank in 1992. Lloyds Bank International merged into Lloyds Bank in 1986, since there

8112-610: The length and often rugged terrain of the American-Mexican border, the undermanned American border service simply could not stop the massive gunrunning into Mexico. In February 1913-February 1914, President Woodrow Wilson imposed an arms embargo on both sides of the Mexican civil war, and not until February 1914 was the embargo lifted on arms sales to the Constitutionalist rebels. Despite the arms embargo, there

8216-572: The manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, and use of small arms by civilians. Countries that regulate access to firearms will typically restrict access to certain categories of firearms and then restrict the categories of persons who may be granted a license for access to such firearms. There may be separate licenses for hunting, sport shooting (a.k.a. target shooting), self-defense, collecting, and concealed carry, with different sets of requirements, permissions, and responsibilities. International treaties and agreements place restrictions on

8320-453: The most frantic period of weapon development in the history of humanity. Massive numbers of new designs and concepts were fielded, and all existing technologies were improved between 1939 and 1945. The most powerful weapon invented during this period was the nuclear bomb ; however, many other weapons influenced the world, such as jet aircraft and radar , but were overshadowed by the visibility of nuclear weapons and long-range rockets. Since

8424-578: The number of customers using online banking services. In July 2016, the bank announced it would cut 3,000 jobs because of the economic downturn as a result of United Kingdom European Union membership referendum . On 17 March 2017, the British Government confirmed its remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group had been sold. In January 2017, the bank suffered interruptions to its online services originally blamed on "unspecified technical glitches". A hacker reportedly claimed responsibility for

8528-514: The original Lloyds Banking Company, which became Lloyds, Barnetts, and Bosanquets Bank Ltd. in 1884. and, finally, Lloyds Bank Limited in 1889. The symbol adopted by Taylors and Lloyds was the beehive, representing industry and hard work (thrift). In 1822, Taylors and Lloyds sent a letter to other banks to inform them of stolen banknotes, adding that it would engrave a symbol of a beehive to all future notes. Dowler & Sons made brass buttons embellished with beehives for branch messenger uniforms in

8632-574: The original sellers. In the United States, biker gangs have been connected to arms trafficking. United States law enforcement agencies started investigating bike gangs in the late 90s, and started classifying them as organized criminal organizations. This was mainly due to the fact that they were able to get control of the prostitution market and the smuggling of stolen goods such as weapons, motorcycles, and car parts. Prosecuting arms traffickers and brokers has proven difficult due to loopholes in national laws. In 2000, Israeli arms dealer Leonid Minin

8736-465: The point of being able to ensure the destruction of the Earth by 100 fold, a new tactic had to be developed. With this realization, armaments development funding shifted back to primarily sponsoring the development of conventional arms technologies for support of limited wars rather than total war . The arms industry is a global industry that involves the sale and manufacture of weaponry. It consists of

8840-529: The rapidly shifting strategic and economic landscape. The main purchasers of munitions from the big three companies were Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey – and, to a lesser extent, Poland, Finland, the Baltic States, and the Soviet Union. Realistic critics understood that war could not really be outlawed, but its worst excesses might be banned. Poison gas became the focus of

8944-490: The realization of mutual assured destruction (MAD), the nuclear option of all-out war is no longer considered a survivable scenario. During the Cold War in the years following World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a nuclear arms race . Each country and their allies continually attempted to out-develop each other in the field of nuclear armaments. Once the joint technological capabilities reached

9048-613: The realms of known physical possibility. At its most prosaic, science fiction features an endless variety of sidearms , mostly variations on real weapons such as guns and swords . Among the best-known of these are the phaser used in the Star Trek television series, films, and novels, and the lightsaber and blaster featured in the Star Wars movies, comics, novels, and TV series. In addition to adding action and entertainment value, weaponry in science fiction sometimes becomes

9152-401: The recipient believe that they are receiving an email from Lloyds Bank or Lloyds TSB. Though these emails have had nothing to do with the bank per se, they often are sent by official-looking email IDs with the bank's domain name. Typically, they contain an authentication code which is sent as a distractor. The linked pages usually allow the recipient to enter their personal information related to

9256-455: The same time, TSB Bank Scotland plc absorbed Lloyds' three Scottish branches becoming Lloyds TSB Scotland plc. The combined business formed the largest bank in the UK by market share and the second-largest to Midland Bank (now HSBC ) by market capitalisation. Lloyds' iconic black horse device was retained and modified to reflect the TSB merger. Lloyds Abbey Life became a wholly owned subsidiary of

9360-508: The time, President Abraham Lincoln had the power to prosecute gunrunners (Americans and foreigners alike) and request Britain to hand over its arms traffickers engaged in " Piracy ", but the British Ambassador to the U.S., Lord Lyons , threatened retaliation if British smugglers were subject to criminal prosecution. As a result, Lincoln was forced to release the captured British blockade runners instead of prosecuting them to avoid

9464-732: The unanimous approval of the Extraordinary General Meeting held on 31st January last. It will be again submitted to you for final confirmation after the close of the Ordinary General Meeting. TIMOTHY KENRICK, Chairman. BIRMINGHAM, 9th February 1866 Two sons of the original partners followed in their footsteps by joining the established merchant bank Barnett, Hoares & Co. which later became Barnetts, Hoares, Hanbury, and Lloyd— based in Lombard Street, London. Eventually, this became absorbed into

9568-507: The weapons of enemies by learning, triggering a continuous process of competitive technological, skill, and cognitive improvement ( arms race ). The use of objects as weapons has been observed among chimpanzees , leading to speculation that early hominids used weapons as early as five million years ago. However, this cannot be confirmed using physical evidence because wooden clubs, spears, and unshaped stones would have left an ambiguous record. The earliest unambiguous weapons to be found are

9672-461: The wide introduction of aircraft into warfare and naval warfare with the introduction of aircraft carriers . Above all, it promised the military commanders independence from horses and a resurgence in maneuver warfare through the extensive use of motor vehicles. The changes that these military technologies underwent were evolutionary but defined their development for the rest of the century. This period of innovation in weapon design continued in

9776-410: Was technological escalation – innovations were rapidly matched through replication or countered by another innovation. World War I marked the entry of fully industrialized warfare as well as weapons of mass destruction ( e.g. , chemical and biological weapons ), and new weapons were developed quickly to meet wartime needs. The technological escalation during World War I was profound, including

9880-434: Was 16 percent higher than in 2005–2009, and the arms sales of the world's 100 largest private arms-producing and military services companies totaled $ 420 billion in 2018. The production, possession, trade, and use of many weapons are controlled. This may be at a local or central government level or by international treaty. Examples of such controls include: All countries have laws and policies regulating aspects such as

9984-409: Was a goldsmith and "keeper of the running cashes" (an early term for banker) and the business became part of Barnett, Hoares & Co. When Lloyds took over that bank in 1884, it continued to trade "at the sign of the black horse". The green of the Lloyds Bank was adopted in the 1920s for added distinctiveness. From 1884 to the 1920s, the black horse and the beehive were both used in cheques, until

10088-749: Was arrested in Italy for drug possession, and while serving his sentence, Italian police found over 1,500 pages of forged end-user certificates and transfers of money which implicated him in trafficking arms to the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone . Minin was released in December 2002, as according to Italian law, he could not be tried because the weapons he had sold had never reached Italy. Additionally, some arms dealers will operate in countries where they cannot be extradited . Arms traffickers are also able to evade capture due to

10192-508: Was confirmed that a number of Lloyds TSB branches in England and Wales would be combined with the branches of Cheltenham & Gloucester and the business of Lloyds TSB Scotland to form a new bank operating under the TSB brand and divested by the group. The selected Lloyds TSB branches and those of Cheltenham & Gloucester were transferred to Lloyds TSB Scotland plc, which was renamed TSB Bank plc. The new bank began operating on 9 September 2013 as

10296-491: Was estimated the Confederates received thousands of tons of gunpowder, half a million rifles, and several hundred cannons from British blockade runners. As a result, due to blockade running operating from Britain, the war was escalated by two years in which 400,000 additional soldiers and civilians on both sides were killed. Under U.S. law and Article 10 of the 1842 U.S.–UK extradition treaty ( Webster-Ashburton Treaty ) at

10400-632: Was followed by the Bronze Age , leading to the creation of the Bronze Age sword and similar weapons. During the Bronze Age, the first defensive structures and fortifications appeared as well, indicating an increased need for security. Weapons designed to breach fortifications followed soon after, such as the battering ram , which was in use by 2500 BC. The development of ironworking around 1300 BC in Greece had an important impact on

10504-553: Was much gunrunning into Mexico, as one American official complained in 1913: "our border towns are practically their commissary and quartermaster depots". Guns were smuggled into Mexico via barrels, coffins, and false bottoms of automobiles. General Huerta avoided the American arms embargo by buying weapons from Germany. The civil war in Sierra Leone lasted from 1991 to 2002, and left 75,000 people dead. Gunrunning played

10608-555: Was no longer an advantage in operating separately. In 1988, Lloyds merged five of its businesses with the Abbey Life Insurance Company to create Lloyds Abbey Life. The bank merged first with the newly demutualised Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society (C&G), then with the TSB Group in 1995. The C&G acquisition gave Lloyds a large stake in the UK mortgage lending market. The TSB merger

10712-640: Was occurring in nearby Liberia. The Liberian Civil Wars took place from 1989 through 1997. The war was between the existing government and the National Patriotic Front . Leader of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, Charles Taylor , helped to create the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone. Taylor was the recipient of thousands of illegally trafficked arms from eastern Europe (mostly Ukraine). Taylor then sold some of these weapons to

10816-589: Was structured as a reverse takeover; Lloyds Bank Plc was delisted from the London Stock Exchange and TSB Group plc was renamed Lloyds TSB Group plc on 28 December, with former Lloyds Bank shareholders owning a 70% equity interest in the share capital, effected through a scheme of arrangement. The new bank commenced trading in 1999 after the statutory process of integration was completed. On 28 June, TSB Bank plc transferred engagements to Lloyds Bank Plc which then changed its name to Lloyds TSB Bank plc; at

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