Lloyds TSB has jumped into bed with Lycos to spawn an ugly lovechild that will grow up to be a pan-European e-bank.

evolvebank.com will launch in Spain later this summer and in Britain by the end of the year followed by France, Germany and Italy in 2001.

The "standalone" ugly-named e-bank (who thinks up these stupid names?) is expected to attract 1.3 million e-customers across Europe by 2003.

The announcement comes in the same week the Halifax released further details about its e-bank, IF.

Peter Ellwood, Group CE of Lloyds TSB said the online venture would set it back 150 million this year.

Lloyds said evolvebank.com (someone really gave it a good beating with the ugly stick, didn't they?) would not clash with its existing British e-bank, LloydsTSB.com.

And while we're on the subject of LloydsTSB.com, thanks to a Hampshire-based vulture-eyed reader who notes that like TFInet, this e-bank also lets users alter the terms and conditions before signing up for the service.

So we did, and asked for a stash of cash, world peace, England winning Euro 2000... ®