While the banks' in-house print sites would probably be most affected by a strategic review, external contracts with the likes of Communisis, Williams Lea and Xerox Global Services (XGS) could also come under scrutiny.

Malcolm Webb, chief marketing officer at DSTi Output, said: "They will have to make quite substantial reductions in both staff numbers and business process efficiencies and it would be absurd to think that the printing side will be ignored on that basis.

"The real decision will be strategically do they stay in-house and build themselves a combined superplant, do they consider multi-site operations, or do they go with business process outsourcing?"

Observers suggested that, even with the combined size of Lloyds and HBOS, which would be able to count four out of every 10 UK residents among its customers, a supersite would be unlikely.

A spokesman for HBOS stressed that it was "business as usual", while Lloyds said its current focus was on getting regulatory and shareholder approval and that "it will take some months to establish how the businesses will fit together".