Finance firm Rainbow Finance, which focuses on gay customers, has merged with its biggest rival Massow Financial Services.

The move creates what is believed to be the largest gay and lesbian-focused independent financial advice organisation outside North America.

The founder and managing director of Rainbow Finance, Louis Letourneau, said the combined organisation, which has its Oxford base in Park End Street, would have more than 20,000 clients.

He said: "Both companies were originally founded to counter the discrimination that was once endemic throughout the UK financial services industry."